Dual/Multi Display Electronic Readers

Existing electronic reading devices don't adequately support the different types of reading people perform. We explored interface designs for a two-screen reading device that allow it to improve the reading experience. To perform our exploration we created a series of prototypes, ranging from low-fi paper to a fully-functioning electronic reading device with two detachable, motion-sensitive faces. This work was presented as a demo at UIST 2007, and a full paper will appear in the CHI 2008 proceedings.

In short, we found that the dual-displays support navigation tasks associated with certain types of reading (e.g. reading magazines, technical documents) better than a single display device. For example, it is often valuable to see more of a document at once. Also, it is often the case with more technical reading that one will need to view different sections of the same document or two different documents at the same time. While a single display device with a large screen offers many of the same benefits, there are additional advantages with a dual display system. These advantages include the ability to flexibly modify the form factor, and the ability to layout each display in a custom manner in the workspace. The downsides, which we are currently addressing, are that a dual-display device is more difficult to handle, due to the increased weight and thickness, and can be more confusing to operate.

Building one of your own

The Gumstix platform works very well for constructing portable device prototypes. Since the XScale chip on the Gumstix is largely identical to those found on PDAs two or three years ago, the Gumstix is easily usable for portable electronics. However, most of the resources and sample projects on the web that feature Gumstix boards are for headless embedded devices and robots. On the side bar, there are various links to the components of the device. The pages should provide a starting off point for those who are curious about what it takes to build one of these devices.

I created a version of this document for the first electronic reader we built but a considerable amount has changed between that iteration and the current device. The second version is considerably thinner and has much better battery life. The original document can be found here.