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By David Rothman

Animation would be just the ticket to spice up many a nonfiction book—especially textbooks on, say, physics or auto mechanics.

E Ink earlier said this was a goal. And the video to the left demonstrates the advantages of such an approach in the AM300 developer’s kit.

How much better to see tech in action than just read explanations!

Newspaper angle

The newspaper industry and others could also benefit from moving ads and other animations, particularly when color is available. The animation-color combo just might show up in E Ink machines costing less than $200, in the next five-ten years. In fact, we’d really be talking full-motion video—short movies, in other words.

Granted, that’s a mere guess, but plausible; got any opinions of your own on this? And what about other technologies? Or the possibilities for cellphones? Or even low-power laptops and tablets with touch screens? Touch is already a feature of the new Sony Reader PRS-700, which uses E Ink and has a much faster refresh rate than earlier machines using similar technology.

The big challenge will be for newspapers and others to show restraint and not overwhelm the readers with high-tech huckstery, which could lessen the joys of text.

The fiction angle: I’m more excited about animation for nonfiction, but for what it’s worth, here’s information on a fiction-related video experiment at HarperCollins (not involving E Ink). It’s video of an author, not mere animation. But you can imagine animation as well—for, say, manga comics.

Related: YouTube page, Engadget, earlier TeleRead items on E Ink

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