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Magic Reader Adds Motion Tracking to Your Reading Fun

The cutting edge in reading devices have long since passed on physical page turn buttons in favor of a touchscreen, thus reducing the foot print of some devices and giving them a sleeker look.

Touchscreens are great and all, but how would you like to not have to touch the iPad at all? I found an app today which will let you do just that.

Magic Reader is an ad-supported reading app which is still in beta, but even in its early phase it is still interesting.It works by using the camera on the iPad to track the reader’s face. Tilting or turning your head will turn the page and advance the text, and there is also a fast page flip mode for the touch screen.

Or at least that’s how the app is supposed to work. It doesn’t seem to want to recognize my face. Now, I know I have an fat ugly mug but it’s not that bad.

Did I mention the app is in beta? I’m sure the face tracking issue will be fixed before he final release.

Right now the app only supports PDF, CBZ, and some image formats. It was originally developed for the japanese market, which explains the format support as well as the support for Japanese in the language options.

But in spite of the problems I had I am still hoping that they’ll get it working. Hands-free reading has any number of real world applications from going through documents while typing on a keyboard to any activity which involves keeping your hands busy. I imagine a face tracking app built around the Kama Sutra would be particularly successful in the marketplace, though I’m not sure Apple would allow it..

iTunes via eBook Friendly

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Comments


Charly September 25, 2012 um 5:15 pm

A few years ago I came across a video which shows what head tracking can do. In the video no tablet is used, but I imediately figured that that would be where the major potential is.

In any case I hope it is okay to link to other websites, if not feel free to change/delete the post.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw[/url]


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