Book reader feature set
Discussion of eBook Feature Set
This page serves as a forum for discussing the features required to make the device a useable eBook reader. Access to a diverse library of reading and reference materials will be a prime selling point of the olpc project. The devices are being cost-justified to interested nations based on the idea that money currently budgeted to purchase textbooks for students could be used to purchase a $100 laptop for each child and that the textbooks would be available in eBook format on the laptop itself.
Features
Reader
The number one required feature for an ebook reader HAS to be the clearest, most easily readable text display possible on the hardware. Anti-aliasing or font-smoothing can be a great asset if implemented well or a horribly "smudgy" mess if implemented poorly...
Useful features might include:
- User definable "style sheets" to control font size and type face, etc.
- Display graphics in various formats; both vector and bitmap formats
- Display complex formulae
- Link in multimedia elements such as sound or video files
- Bookmarking, preferably sharable via network
- Annotations, preferably sharable via network
- Link to external programs for coursework such as worksheets, labs, etc. which can be forwarded BY the teacher to the students, and sent back to the teacher once the homework is done.
- Human readable, yet efficient markup language
- Compressed files (easily decompressed to access original files)
- Simple, intuitive interface
- Localizeable
- Supports complex-text langugage rendering (for example, arabic and thai)
- A way to scroll, or "turn pages" of ebooks with the following properties: simple, natural, low-learning curve.
- Users should be able to encrypt and view documents. Special care should be taken to treat the contents in a highly sensitive manner to make wide-scale analysis of such documents infeasable.
Library
The laptop has the storage capacity for many hundreds of books, articles, stories, essays, etc., so cataloging, organizing and searching will be crucial.
Useful features might include:
- A standardized schema of metadata for categorizing work
- Sorting on any of the fields in the schema, plus system generated data like last page read, etc.
- Full-text search capability across all titles - MUST be speedy so indexing will be necessary
- Network access to larger library to allow downloads of additional titles
