Last but not least: Help, my newspaper can talk
With printed electronics and conductive colors, the reading experience will soon become audible. Scientists in the UK are working on a talking daily newspaper.
The British regional newspaper "Lancashire Evening Post" lies on the table, next to it an iPad and a test person with oversized headphones presses the corner of the newspaper on which a "Play" button is depicted. This is how 4-c.at describes the experimental set-up that will form the basis for what will influence the everyday lives of newspaper readers in the foreseeable future: The interactive newspaper. According to 4-c.at, it is being tested at the British universities of Dundee, Surrey and Central Lanashire. They are researching whether it is possible to develop the daily newspaper as a multimedia gadget. Conductive inks are to be used to enable a WiFi connection, Jon Rogers, lecturer in product design at the University of Dundee, told 4-c.at. In this way, the paper could be connected to the Internet and thus reach a server. However, the interactive newspaper will not be the only application. Posters, brochures and advertising signs will also benefit from the same system. All that will be needed to play audio content is to press an interactive button on the paper.
If you're thinking: "But the Internet already exists. And iPad newspapers. So why connect a newspaper to the Internet when Apple and its various interactive devices already exist?", India has forgotten. At least that's what Jon Rogers believes. Because "the Western middle class can afford expensive products like an iPad, but the majority of the world's population can't," he tells 4-c.at. So if you think of the huge newspaper market in India, the potential of audio pieces becomes clear, "there are articles in any dialect or language directly from the newspaper. That's why we are researching and developing solutions for people from different geographical and social backgrounds," he explains.
However, the reading that Rogers has in mind also necessarily requires output devices. This means that in countries with few smartphones and tablets, a solution would also have to be found for this, or even one that works without wireless LAN.
