technology

Waiting for the Animated Book

One of things I am most excited about when it comes to the world of books is the integration and the convergence of multimedia into the product format we refer as the “book”.

Two significant things have occurred over the past year that demonstrate we are moving in that direction:

1.  Adobe has released Acrobat 9 which now allows for the ability to embed video or flash animation within a PDF.

2.  E-ink has shown its new product which allows for animation (via Teleread.org)

Combine the two technologies and we have the ability to begin to introduce animation into books. Now all we need is a little bit of colour…

Suggested Future Implications?

I think long-term and big picture — so from my perspective, the introduction of such technologies are quite fascinating as the introduction of e-books and the ability for print-on-demand can reduce the cost of actually printing the book. However, with the trend of moving into the realm of interactivity and multimedia, the production costs of books may actually increase due to technical and labour requirements.

Another way of looking at this evolution is by comparing it with the evolution of the video game. Video games have evolved from a simple goal (i.e. Pac Man) to a slightly more complex set of objectives (i.e. Super Mario) to an extremely in-depth storyline-based set of goals, objectives and achievements. Video games have turned into a massive projects combining and utilizing the skill sets of many different people from a diverse number of fields from writers to 3D modelers to physicists.

By no means am I suggesting that all books will be integrated with a “video game” — I am simply noting how we might end up interacting with text content and other related media, changing the way we enjoy a book. Don’t worry folks, there will still be books that will be pure text.

Now add some multiplayer or social networking to these books and we’ve got a drastically different story.

For now… enough dreaming.

© 2008 Defining Canada.