People who prefer print books over e-books may still want extra digital material to go with them. That’s the idea behind Sorin Matei’s project, Ubimark, which embeds books with two-dimensional codes that work as hyperlinks when photographed.
So far there’s just one book available in English, Around the World in 80 Days, with the bar-like codes. (See a YouTube demo here.) A collection of scholarly essays in Romanian, Mr. Matei’s native language, will be available soon. Mr. Matei, an associate professor of communication at Purdue University, says that the initial book is just “an exercise in pushing the envelope as far as we can,” and that scholarly publications will be available in the future with the embedded feature.
When a reader of the book photographs a code accompanying a chapter, map, or illustration, a Web browser can use that image to link to a corresponding Web site. A chapter’s site might include a discussion forum; and a map’s site might link to a current or historical map of the location and include markers with readers’ annotations. For scholarly publications, codes might link to a page where authors answer readers’ questions.
Mr. Sorin understands that it seems a bit counterintuitive to build links into a print book instead of an e-book. Still, he thinks that people aren’t ready to abandon print quite yet.
“There’s a gap here of about 10 to 20 years that we need to fill in,” he says, “and it would be foolish if we didn’t try to.”
9 Responses to Purdue Professor Embeds Hyperlinks in Printed Books
scottmidkiff - May 28, 2010 at 4:15 pm
It’s great to see this happening, but it is not as novel as the article implies. For example, the Virginia Tech ECE Department’s printed annual report for 2010 includes 2D tags with several articles that then link to related web sites. The ECE Department was not the first on campus to do this. There are also print magazines and catalogs that include 2D tags.See http://www.ece.vt.edu/news/ar10/pdf/ECEAR2010.pdf for the PDF version of the hardcopy version of the ECE Department’s annual report.
paievoli - May 28, 2010 at 6:18 pm
This has been done in numerous incarnations for the last 15 years. Please stop trying to save a dead media and move forward towards progress.
arrive2__net - May 29, 2010 at 3:06 am
This is an interesting concept since it is a sort of mixed media, integrating book, cell phone, and internet resources. Perhaps some future Ubimark books will have many D2 links and relatively less text, so it becomes a sort of internet tour. Something like that might be especially useful in an art appreciation course, but the direct interaction of book and internet could have many educational applications. It seems tech like that may pressure development of a text reading interface, so the cell phone could text-read a printed url, and therefore find applications beyond D2 links and Ubimark books. Also the software/interface for viewing the internet links on a large, HD screen also seems obvious. I wonder how long those Ubimark integrated web sites will stay online. Maybe seeking to develop this idea on the Ipad and Kindle platforms would also be a good idea. Good luck with your idea, Matei.Bernard SchusterArrive2.net
mbelvadi - May 29, 2010 at 9:10 am
The iPad doesn’t have a camera, right? So it lacks the basic technology to take advantage of this. I hope Apple changes that in the next version.I have seen other articles about this kind of technology being used in cute ways in the physical world, e.g. billboards and the like. If more printed material starts using this, it might encourage the general spread of it on both sides – the use of the marks, and encouraging more people to buy equipment that can take advantage of it (the usual catch-22 of many technology adoption situations). I think it would be a good thing to better integrate the vast body of information available on the Internet with the physical world, e.g. at historical landmarks, in museums, etc. I’m not too thrilled with what advertisers will do with it, but I suppose we’ll eventually get savvy enough to tell which marks will lead us to ads instead of useful information.
eelalien - May 29, 2010 at 9:45 am
This seems like a very clunky solution requiring too many steps. It did remind me of the :CueCat barcode reader which could read barcodes in print and link to websites via computer. I wonder why this technolopgy (or similar) isn’t used?
emmadw - June 1, 2010 at 2:02 am
I think there are a lot of possibilities here, though it’s a shame that the way both this article & the video were presented it appeared as if Matei had developed the 2D (or QR) codes – where any Wikipediaing student will know they’ve been round for quite some time ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code ) Paievoli – I agree the technology has been round for some time; however, my understanding is that it’s only in the past two or 3 years that it’s really taken off – as increasing numbers of people have the technology in their hands. (Though, as mbelvadi points out; not all – [me inc!]). I’m not sure, though, paievoli that I agree with you that paper is a ‘dead’ technology. Just as the (domestic) hardback book lives alongside the paperback, I think that paper books & eBooks will live together, as each has its benefits/drawbacks over the other.
emmadw - June 1, 2010 at 2:07 am
P.S At least, I’m assuming that given that just below his video there’s a code that’s specifically called “QR” it’s the QR type of 2D code he’s using, rather than a new one…
rweinel - June 1, 2010 at 8:32 am
I think, several disciplines will still rely on printed books for a very long time – and they often put very long and complicated urls in their footnotes – so I like the idea and concept very much
hveshdon - February 7, 2011 at 11:06 am
I think that the idea and concept of this is great, its like the best of both worlds, (no hannah montana reference at all) and will be beneficial for linking the gap of digital and material.
http://www.ar10t.com