There are those who might prefer a physical book to an ebook, despite the ebook being cheaper along with the e-reader’s ability to store multiple books all in one device. Some of the reasons given include how holding a physical book is nicer to the touch compared to an e-reader, not to mention how navigation of a physical book, i.e. the turning of pages, could be considered more efficient than an e-reader (although we guess that really boils down to personal preference).
However it seems that some folks down at the KAIST Institute of Information Technology Convergence decided that e-readers should come with the same ease of navigation that a physical book has, such as the quick flipping of pages in a more “natural” manner. This has resulted in a concept ebook format which they demonstrated in the video above. This concept was demonstrated on an iPad and it incorporated several gestures that one might use when reading a physical book, such as:
- Page Flipping with finger bookmarking
- Multiple page turning using multiple fingers
- Faster swipes turning multiple page
- Longer presses, then swiping can turn multiple pages
- – Writing the page number
What do you guys think? Is this an ebook concept you’d be interested in seeing in the future, or do you think that the current ebook navigation style is perfect the way it is and does not need “fixing”?