| Showrooming is the process in which people visit their local bookstore to snap a picture of a book or scan a barcode to find it cheaper online. The average person is just doing this to get a better deal, but effectively they are directly contributing to bookstores all over Canada, US and the United Kingdom going out of business. Do people who showroom hate print and are actively trying to destroy it? The Nielsen Global Survey of e-commerce found that British consumers are almost 40% more likely to buy items online than Europeans as a whole. The data also mentioned that that between 2011 and 2014, the number of UK respondents who intended to buy e-books online in the next six months increased 200%. The UK Booksellers Association found that 63% of shoppers admitted to engaging in showrooming behavior. The survey of 2,045 UK book buyers found that while young people felt (or at least admitted to feeling) guiltier than older shoppers about using bookstores as showrooms, they were actually more likely to do so. 76% of 16- to 24-year-old’s also admitted to visiting brick-and-mortar bookstore before buying online, compared with 51.7% of those over 55 who confessed to doing the same thing. Meanwhile in the US Barnes and Noble is also a victim of customers walking into the store and buying the e-books elsewhere. A mobile tech company called Placed, analyzed the shopping behavior of showroomers and found 18% of all of B&N’s customers are buying the content via Amazon. "Barnes & Noble and Best Buy are places that are showroomed like crazy," says Wharton marketing professor Stephen Hoch. Hoch predicts that neither chain is likely to survive Amazon's assault because the stores don't have the service levels to stand out. "Go into a Barnes & Noble or a Best Buy and you see big box stores that should know their businesses. What you find out, however, is that employees don't know their business, and you don't get great help." Some bookstores aren’t just sitting back and letting customers get away with showrooming. One store, Elliott Bay Book Co., has taken to attempting to get customers to think about their actions. Signs are posted throughout the stacks that warn customers against the practice, even providing a QR code that links to an article that details the after effects of this practice. Yet another business, publisher Educational Development Corp., went so far as to pull their titles from Amazon due to their salesmen giving lengthy presentations to corporate consumers at company expense, and then having those potential customers make the purchase from Amazon. But will these tactics actually prove effective? After all, if a consumer is willing to physically stand in a bookstore and make the purchase on their smartphone (or on their tablet, using the store's WiFi connection as they do), will simply pointing out how it harms their business enough? One option would be to actively encourage the online purchasing, and even go so far as to provide a counter top computer to conduct these transactions while directing the customer to the retailer through the store's own website. Kobo has agreements with indie bookstores all over the US and the UK and they can earn affiliate benefits on the transaction. Customers who need the instant purchase of the title will buy it in store, and those who can afford to wait in order to save on the discount can still help the business. I think bookstores need to get back to basics. Knowledgeable staff that actually read the books they are recommending. I often feel when I visit a bookstore such as Chapters/Indigo or Barnes and Noble the staff are just working there because its a stable job. I want to visit a store and be sold on something, to have that sense of jubilation when discovering something new. Book discovery online is just algorithms and metadata, so impersonal it makes me sick. Showrooming is on the Rise and Bookstores Suffer is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Friday, May 29, 2015
Showrooming is on the Rise and Bookstores Suffer
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Onyx Boox i86 with Frontlight Pre-Orders
| The Onyx Boox i86 is an 8-inch ebook reader with a high resolution E Ink screen that runs open Android and includes a boatload of features. The Boox i86 has been encumbered by a number of delays. An early model without a frontlight recently became available, and now finally the i86 with frontlight is officially […] |
Amazon Starts Marketing a Kindle e-Reader Bundle for Kids
| Amazon is experimenting with bundling by offering the Kindle Basic Touch with a kid friendly case and two year warranty against spills and drops. It is currently available for $99, which is a $39 savings from the normal price. Designed to help kids get excited about reading, the Bundle allows kids to easily take all of their books with them, wherever they might go this summer, on a compact device. Unlike the Fire tablet that is aimed at kids, this device is purely designed for reading and lacks the multimedia based distractions of a tablet. The Kids Bundle has a really slick listing on the Amazon store, that really hypes all of the virtues of an e-reader. If you are interested in this, here are some of the main details. The two year warranty is not from Amazon, but a company called Squaretrade. Once your Kindle ships, you will receive an email with instructions to activate your coverage. The Kindle also comes with the ability to get a free colored case, your options are black, blue, green, red and purple. Should you buy this kids bundle? Well, I approve of the free two year warranty so parents can rest assured they will be protected from the rigors of a five year old. Also, I have always endorsed single use e-readers, because they are a gateway to stories and expanding the imagination. It is important to note that this $99 package is only available in the US, so international residents won’t be able to purchase it. Amazon Starts Marketing a Kindle e-Reader Bundle for Kids is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Kindle for Kids Bundle Available for $99
| Amazon has just introduced a new Kindle for Kids Bundle that sells for $99. The bundle includes the latest entry-level Kindle (the $99 one without advertisements), a kid-friendly cover, and a 2 year SquareTrade warranty. The bundle is a good deal considering that it costs the same as a regular non-ad Kindle, so you’re basically […] |
Should e-Reader Companies Focus on Android?
| There are many statistics that iOS users tend to spend more money on in-app purchases than their Android counterparts. One of the drawbacks in the e-reader industry is that no major online retailer actually sells digital books on any Apple products. This is primary because Apple takes a cut out of each e-book that is sold. Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and Google all sell e-books on Android though, but should other companies focus on this OS? In 2014, 8 out of every 10 phones that were shipped ran Android, and there are currently 4,000 distinct Android devices. Android has grown substantially over the years. These are staggering figures considering 600 million users have adopted smartphones over the past year. Developing a comprehensive solution for Android is actually fairly difficult. There are so many screen sizes and different resolutions to consider, it makes delivering content very challenging. This is often why the mainstream e-book companies tend to focus on iOS first to deliver new features and enhancements and then port it over to Android at a later date. Many e-book sellers are actually not aware that Google takes a flat 30% out of each in-app transaction like Apple does. Many bypass this by redirecting the user to their own website, within the app. This way you can sell e-books and deliver them seamlessly to the app. If you sell e-books on Android, certainly you are not exclusively locked into dealing with Google Play Merchant Services. The Amazon App Store, Nook App Store and the Good e-Reader App Store are viable alternatives. Amazon and B&N both have their own billing API services and take 30% of each app sale and in-app purchase. Good e-Reader on the other hand does not take anything from in-app purchases, which makes monetizing e-books financially viable. You can check out our Developer FAQ to find out more! In the end, Android certainly has a very high adoption rate, but the amount of development time it takes to make a viable solution can be quite daunting. Additionally, if you choose to distribute it outside of Google Play you have to make separate editions using their API for in-app purchases. I think Android makes sense for free e-reading apps that have royalty free books or e-book subscription systems that give you thousands of books for a low monthly fee. Selling them one by one, is not financially viable unless you are a large company. If you are just getting started I would recommend trying iOS first. Should e-Reader Companies Focus on Android? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Final Fantasy Agito Coming to Windows 10
| Square Enix, manufacturers of the popular video game franchise Final Fantasy, have recently announced that their smartphone game "Final Fantasy Agito" will be available on Windows 10. The original mobile game allows players, acting as cadets trying to become an Agito, going through their school life. Players interact with a variety of NPCs, non-player characters, fighting alongside them and enjoying school life. The game is meant to act as an alternate storyline to the original Final Fantasy game, playing as a background character in a main setting and featuring the main characters of the original game in background roles. The game is coming to Windows 10 screens sometime in 2015, under the name Final Fantasy Agito+." If all goes well, this could mean more smartphone games adapted for computer screens. For those of us who prefer larger screens, the comfort of our own homes, and more freedom of hands to reach for those tasty chips, this might just be exactly what we're looking for. Final Fantasy Agito Coming to Windows 10 is a post from: Good e-Reader |
New Typesetting and Layout Engine Coming to Kindle eReaders and Apps
| Yesterday Amazon introduced a new layout engine for Kindle ebooks with the latest update for the Kindle iOS app. Later in the day when Amazon officially announced the news, it was noted that the new layout engine is also now available on Kindle Fire tablets, and that it will be coming to other Kindle ereaders […] |
SamplerBox – drop-and-play sampler
| Massive thanks to Clive for babysitting this blog (he’s been both writing and editing) while I was away. Any relaxation I was still feeling from the vacation evaporated the moment I saw my inbox. It was good while it lasted. Regular readers will know that my favourite Raspberry Pi projects are often the musical ones. So I was really pleased to find a message from Joseph Ernest at SamplerBox bobbing up among the top few hundred emails of that inbox this morning. SamplerBox is an open-source, sub-€99 sampler in a box (hence the name), and it’s beautifully simple: drop samples onto the SD card, hook up a MIDI keyboard, and you’ll end up with something like this: SamplerBox has more than 128 voices of polyphony (which sounds like way too much until you consider things like sustain pedals on pianos), and can load sample sets up to 1GB. Plus, it comes in a really cute laser-cut wooden box. Setup’s as easy as…Pi. This isn’t a project to buy: it’s open source, and made for you to build. Which is something I’ll be doing as soon as Joseph’s finished his instructions – I’m already scoping out boxes. Thanks Joseph!
The post SamplerBox – drop-and-play sampler appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |
How OverDrive Streaming Video improves the value of your digital library
 Recently we spoke with Katie Hotard, the Virtual Branch Manager at Marion County Public Library, about her library’s recent adoption of OverDrive Streaming Video. Below is her story of how the library has We here at the Marion County Public Library System love Overdrive's streaming video service! We are a small library in the hills of north central West Virginia, but are part of a consortium of West Virginia libraries who subscribe to the West Virginia Digital Entertainment Library Initiative otherwise known as WVDELI.
We have promoted this service through the library website and our various social media accounts as well as on the WVDELI site itself. Many of our patrons have reported finding and accessing the streaming services while browsing the collection at WVDELI. While we are still exploring titles and ways to promote this service, we are absolutely thrilled at the possibilities Overdrive has to offer in this arena.  |
The streaming video service offered through WVDELI and Overdrive meets a need within our community for variety as well as quality entertainment. We continually hear positive things about our streaming service from patrons. They enjoy the myriad of videos Overdrive has to offer, from non-fiction and educational titles, to music videos. There is a little something for everyone to be found on WVDELI and Overdrive!Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Baen Books Can No Longer Be Sent to a Kindle
| Baen Books has announced that starting June 10th the company will no longer support the Email my book to Kindle feature. The primary reason for this is due to the new Amazon’s Terms of Use. In essence, Baen e-books cannot use Amazon’s Personal Documents Service to deliver paid content. In March 2015 Amazon augmented their cloud system that requires users to subscribe to Prime in order to store e-books, photos and video. If you are not a Prime member, it costs $11.99 per year. When this new system went live, it augmented their terms of service no longer allowing companies to use the automatic system to deliver paid content to customers Kindles. Basically, any company that sells e-books in MOBI format can no longer deliver the books directly to Amazon branded e-readers. Baen will continue to sell e-books in the MOBI format and has now posted detailed instructions on how to manually copy them over to your Kindle via USB. Baen Books Can No Longer Be Sent to a Kindle is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Want to Know More About Marvel Comics? Try This New Search Engine
| In early 2014 Marvel Comics has done the unthinkable and released a set of tools that will allow developers to build apps and websites pulling data from Marvel. The API taps into Marvel's vast library of comics—from what's coming up, to 70 years ago. This represents the first API program by any major comic book publisher and provides an innovative way for fans to interact with Marvel Entertainment and Marvel's digital content. One new initiative is a search engine database named iMarvel. iMarvel is a reference tool that will serve up character and comic book descriptions based on what you input with auto-complete suggestions to boot. For example if you input Squirlgirl you get a picture and a brief description. It also has links to the comics she appears in, to give you a sense on what you should buy if you have an infatuation with her. Want to Know More About Marvel Comics? Try This New Search Engine is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Indie Bookstores selling e-books is a Losing Proposition
| Indie bookstores have enjoyed a resurgence in book sales over the course of the past year. According to the American Booksellers Association, the number of member independent bookstores has increased more than 20% since e-readers took the world by storm. There were 1,651 in 2009 and this figure jumped dramatically to 2,094 in 2014. These days, indie bookstores don’t just sell print books, but e-book as well, and it is a losing proposition. Independent bookstores first started selling e-books in 2010 when the American Booksellers Association partnered with Google. This arrangement did not last very long because people needed a smartphone or tablet with Google Play Services, and during this time period many companies did not offer devices with this particular framework. In 2012 the ABA pivoted and signed a new three year deal with Kobo. Bookstores would earn a commission on e-reader sales and also any books that were purchased on the device. The average indie bookstores has between 1% and 3% of their revenue come from e-books. The ones that have any sort of success have a dedicated person who is in charge of promotions and getting people knowledgeable that they can still support their local bookstore, while buying content online. An example of a successful initiative is McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich. They saw both the sales volume and number of new e-book customers rise in 2014. The store added 71 new Kobo customers for a 23% increase in its customer base. That's in part because the store integrates e-books into its weekly email blast, its radio promotion on NPR, and even at book talks Many indie bookstores actually see no point to carrying e-readers or e-books. "We have no plans to sell Kobos at this time," said Bob Ryan, manager of Wakefield Books in Wakefield, R.I. "We understand the popularity of the e-readers, but we're going to cater to the print readers.” Meanwhile, Steven Baum, co-owner of Greetings & Readings in Hunt Valley, Md., which once carried electronics, has no desire to return. "We left that industry when the sales tax was greater than the profit margin," he said. "The Kobo is too little too late. E-book readers are already on a massive decline, because of the tablet." Other booksellers were soured by the Google experience and decided not to sell Kobo e-readers. "We did the Google thing," said Grant Novak, manager of the Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, which is not selling e-books. Amazon currently dominates the US, with a 75% market share. This leaves Apple, Barnes and Noble, Google and Kobo fighting over the scraps. Indie bookstores simply are not in the average customers mind when they think of places to go, to buy e-books. For every person who buys an e-reader from a bookstore is one less print sale, which often has a higher profit margin. Do bookstores really want to take a gambit on their future by actively encouraging these base of customers to switch to digital content? I think indie bookstores would be better off not selling e-books or e-readers and instead focusing on the community aspect of book selling. I know plenty of stores in New York that have wine parties and cool events that bring the book community together and foster something far grater than buying an e-book in your boxer shorts. Indie Bookstores selling e-books is a Losing Proposition is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Evangelion’s Hideaki Anno Predicts the Decline of the Animation Industry
| In an interview with Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Neon Genesis Evangelion’s creator, Hideaki Anno, has stated his thoughts on the numbered days for the Japanese animation industry. Expressing his thoughts and concern, Anno has stated that he believes the anime industry will begin declining within the next five to twenty years, saying that the "death" of the industry is inevitable. Anno has stated that he believes the industry needs to become more flexible in creating new environments such as introducing more computer graphics in shows because the way things are currently working, the current business model just won’t be maintainable. Anno told RIA "Japanese animation is in decline," and that the industry has, " already peaked.” and that, “After it does collapse, there will probably be a new resurgence." This death isn’t the death of anime per se, and Japan will always of course have animation, but Anno has relayed that he believes that the collapse will mark the end of Japan’s dominance. As other countries in Asia begin getting richer, they now have more resources to produce it’s own animated shows in turn throwing Japan off of the epicenter of the animation industry. Anno believes that there will be less money in Japan and also points out that there are now fewer animators in Japan, which will definitely negatively impact anime as well for the general smaller population of Japan. "Japan will just no longer be the center of world animation. Maybe in five years, Taiwan will be such a center." Anno adds after describing his trip to Taiwan where he met animators there who had much passion and spirit. Anno also states that animation is only "only moving by intertia." With all that being said, I find that more animes are beginning to incorporate more CGI in their animes nowadays, such as Sailor Moon Crystal using 3D models to revamp the transformation scenes, Etotama for utilizing CGI for their fight scenes and various mech animes that makes us of 3D models as well. I don’t think Anno’s predictions are entirely true, sure, other countries may begin entering the anime industry but I believe Japan will always be in the center of it and in turn will hopefully begin producing more animes of quality rather than quantity. Only just a few years ago, a lot of people had predicted that the movie industry would go down as well but we see now that it is only steadily rising higher. Though Anno does make a good point, we will just have to wait and see how it all plays out! Evangelion’s Hideaki Anno Predicts the Decline of the Animation Industry is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Kindle for iOS Update 4.9 Adds Hyphens, Bookerly Font, and More
| Amazon has just updated the Kindle app for iOS devices—the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch—to add some new features. The new software version is 4.9, and it’s a fairly major update. There are some big visual changes that Amazon claims to provide faster reading with less eye strain. Among the changes include the added support […] |
Kobo Adds Visa Checkout Option with Free $10 Kobo Credit
| Yesterday Kobo announced that they’ve added Visa Checkout to Kobo.com as a new payment option in addition to credit cards and PayPal. Kobo and Visa are trying to entice people by giving away a $10 credit for Kobo.com after using Visa Checkout to complete a purchase. The $10 credit gets applied directly to your Kobo […] |
OverDrive app to be featured in Android Auto demos at Google I/O conference
| Exciting news for your library's audiobooks! On May 28-29, attendees of the Google I/O conference in San Francisco will have the opportunity to demo OverDrive's Android app with Android Auto support. Android Auto was designed to make it easy for drivers to more safely interact with apps, music, maps and more by showing the information clearly on in-car navigation screens. The OverDrive app will enable users to enjoy audiobooks they have borrowed from their library with simple onscreen navigation tools available in a variety of different car models. The OverDrive app will also be navigable via Google voice commands. Android Auto extends the Android platform into the car in a way that's purpose-built for driving. After connecting an Android phone to a compatible car, drivers will be able to "project" their experience onto their car's in-dash display, giving them access to apps and services which have been optimized for the car with voice input and glanceable controls. OverDrive continues to invest in the ease of use and broad applicability of its apps. This offers another opportunity for users to multi-task by enjoying library audiobooks on their commute or while they travel. OverDrive for Android with Android Auto support is coming soon
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Leading Chinese eBook Publishers to Receive Achievement Awards at BookExpo America
| At the largest publishing event in North America, BookExpo America (BEA), OverDrive will host a reception and present the Blue Sky Awards to publishers with top selling Chinese language adult and children's eBooks. Hundreds of US, Canadian and international public libraries and schools now offer their Chinese readers instant access to thousands of new Chinese language eBook titles in every category (for example, see San Francisco Public Library eBook collection at http://sfpl.lib.overdrive.com/Chinese.htm). OverDrive created the Blue Sky Awards to honor international publishers who have achieved excellence in 5 categories. During BEA 2015 at a special Recognition Reception in OverDrive's booth #1720, the 2015 awards will be presented to:
"We congratulate and commend this group of leading eBook publishers for promoting Chinese culture and literature to communities throughout the US and worldwide," said Erica Lazzaro, Director of Publisher Relations at OverDrive. "Readers and learners around the world are eagerly discovering and borrowing from their local library popular fiction, children's and educational Chinese eBooks in every genre." Chinese publishers are enjoying rapid sales growth in the US and international markets as part of the Chinese government's "Going Abroad" strategy. OverDrive's Chinese collection has become one of the fastest-growing categories within its public library catalog, which now includes more than 20,000 recently published Chinese language titles in EPUB and other digital formats. Notable achievements from the 2015 Blue Sky Award winners: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press – Children's Publishing Since its partnership with OverDrive began in 2014, FLTRP has provided a number of classic bilingual children's titles, offering global libraries with excellent language-learning materials. FLTRP is well-positioned to tell China stories to the world. Zhejiang Publishing United Group Digital Media Co. – Fiction Favored by readers and patrons worldwide, Zhejiang Publishing United Group Digital Media Co. supplies a wide range of the most popular Chinese fiction and has experienced rapid growth in the library market. Content supplied includes titles from bestselling authors such as Cai Jun, Li Ximin, Shen shixi and Zhou Haohui. Posts & Telecommunications Press – Education With its strong background in technology and computer science, Posts & Telecommunications Press has become a pioneer in educational digital publishing, supplying China's best nonfiction titles in a variety of subjects including business, computer technology, travel, photography, art, management and more. China Intercontinental Press – Multi-lingual Specializing in multi-lingual publishing, CIP is now one of China's leading publishing companies with multi-lingual publications, most of which are in Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian and Arabic. With a focus on Chinese culture, traditional arts, religion, cooking & food, popular social topics, CIP's titles have become a main source for readers who are interested in learning about China. China National Publications Import & Export Corporation – Innovation The CNPIEC collection is one of OverDrive’s fastest-growing Chinese partner catalogs. They offer content from the most prestigious literature publishers including People's Literature Publishing House, Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, Central Compilation and Translation Press, New World Press. As the first aggregator providing professionally translated bilingual metadata, CNPIEC is enabling over 30,000 English-speaking librarians to select quality Chinese titles.  |
Microsoft Apps Now Available on Samsung, LG, and Sony Tablets
| Microsoft is on a rampage trying to woo companies to bundle their Office line of apps on all sorts of Android tablets. They have been very successful ironing out deals with Samsung, LG, Sony, Haier, Positivo and Wortman. Officially Microsoft has signed deals with over 31 different companies to have Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype loaded on Android driven tablets. The first batch of tablets to include the MS apps will be on a yet unannounced LG tablet, and Sony will include them on their Xperia Z4 tablet within the next 90 days. There is no word yet if these apps are able to be uninstalled or not, I know many people will be quite irate if they aren’t. Microsoft Apps Now Available on Samsung, LG, and Sony Tablets is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Unveils New Bookerly Font for iPhone and iPad
| Amazon has just released a new version of their seminal Kindle e-Reading app for the iPad and iPhone. The company has made a big step towards better typography with the advent of Bookerly, the first typeface designed for the Kindle for scratch. Additionally, it looks like Amazon is trying to solve the Kindle’s typesetting problems with an all-new layout engine that introduces better text justification, kerning, drop caps, image positioning, and more. Bookerly is going to be replacing Caecilia as the new default font for the Kindle Fire line of tablets and their fleet of apps. Bookerly is a serif style of font that has been custom-made by Amazon to be as readable across as many different types of screens as possible. Like Google’s Literata, Bookerly is meant to address many of the aesthetic issues surrounding e-book fonts. Does Bookerly make a big difference while reading an e-book? According to Amazon’s internal tests, that means it’s about 2% easier on the eye. That may seem like a small improvement, but spread that 2% across millions of Kindle users and billions of pages of e-reading, and it all starts to add up. I think the one exciting thing that users will notice right away with the new Kindle App for iOS is the new layout engine. It justifies text more like print typesetting. Even if you max out the font size on the new Kindle app, it will keep the spacing between words even, intelligently hyphenating words and spreading them between lines as need may be. This will obviously appeal to people who frequently adjust the sizes of the fonts or have vision disorders and want to read more effectively. Amazon Unveils New Bookerly Font for iPhone and iPad is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Emoti – Visualising our Emotions
| If you missed the updates recently, we’re currently running a 12-month programme for creative young people called Raspberry Pi Creative Technologists. We have a Google+ community for the group to post ideas, share interesting links and ask each other for help and we hoped they would also use it to arrange to meet up outside of the organised field trips: within the first month, one of them found the Art Hackathon and suggested they go along and take part. Three of them went along and teamed up with some others. Yasmin wrote a full account of the hack… I've always heard about how awesome Hackathons could be; they're a chance to surround yourself with intelligent people who share the same interest, come up with inspiring ideas together and become engrossed in a project, with everyone chipping in to turn concept into reality over one weekend. But I’m going to be perfectly honest with you here; however awesome this sounds, I can't help but feel a tad intimidated by it all. There's still so much I feel I have yet to learn and I always worry about how much of an asset (or a nuisance) I would be. So when I saw an opportunity to go to an Art Hackathon, which aspired to mix teams with different skill sets and types, I knew that I had to attend, and I'm so glad I did! With the Hackathon holding presentations by many talented people including as Joel Lewis, Di Mainstone and Nick Rothwell, as well tables full of various tech and art supplies, there were no limitations to the amount of creativity that we could muster! Yasmin and Milton All of this inspired a creation that managed to win 2nd Place for Peoples Choice, and I can proudly say that I was a part of its development: Emoti – Visualising our Emotions
Using Twitter Widgets, our team was able to pull certain keywords from tweets being posted in real time and assign them to different emotion types, which meant being able to have constantly updated data on how people were feeling on twitter through these emotion-related keywords. The emotions we assigned them to were: Happy, Sad, Surprised, Afraid and Angry. From this data we then created a simple HTML web-page with 5 divs, or blocks, of colour relating to the different emotion states. These would constantly change width depending on the data that was being collected from the tweets to give a visual representation of how many people were tweeting under each emotion:
To make this experience of witnessing how the world feels and how frequently these emotions change more immersive, these visual representations are also accompanied with audio. We chose five audio tracks, one to depict each emotion, adding them into the web-page using the HTML5 audio tag, and adjusted their volume depending on the emotion-based twitter data with some JavaScript wizardry. This ended up with the clashing music types seemingly battling against each other, reflecting how hectic the live emotion states were and how rapidly they would change at random; one moment showing solely happiness, the next ultimate anger. The Hackathon Effect This was an Art Hackathon don't forget, so, of course we had to present this data in a beautiful and intriguing way. What's more intriguing than creating the illusion of 3D colour-changing ripples?! For this effect, the designers in our team laser cut clear plastic to create the individual ripples and slotted them into a black board. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to whip out my Raspberry Pi! We ran the web-page through the Pi and hooked it up to the HDMIPi, allowing a bright screen for our structure to be placed onto, so that the moving coloured blocks from below would shine onto the clear plastic and give the illusion of a 3D object. Finally, the structure was put together in a dark, enclosed space, and the end product came to life, completely exceeding my expectations! Colours danced gracefully across the ripples, making us forget that there was even a web-page below. It was easy to get lost in the entrancing movement of pattern that the object seemed to create. As soon as you immerse yourself in the full experience, with audio as well as these entrancing visuals, it becomes a little overwhelming. Watching the colours is one thing, but hearing the clashes of audio really brings the message across that this is how people from around the world are feeling right now.
Yes, it’s open source! Find the (somewhat messy) code here: https://github.com/itomblack/emotion-twitter What I Gained…Aside from the obvious: an awesome project, a better understanding of how to work in a team and improved coding skills, I managed to come away from the Hackathon feeling much more positive about what I, an as individual, can achieve. I may not be have been the most skilled coder in the room but I was still able to have meaningful input on the project, both creatively and through my development skills, which leaves me wondering what I was so worried about in the first place! As well as this I'm so grateful to have had the pleasure of meeting many creative and genuinely lovely people. It was so interesting to see all of the various projects that everyone had made, each one entirely unique and fascinating in its own right. Thank you to the people behind the Art Hackathon event and those intelligent folk within the Emoti Dream Team who helped bring it to life: P.S. This is my very first blog, how am I doing? Let me know! (If you want to… No pressure…) The post Emoti – Visualising our Emotions appeared first on Raspberry Pi. |