From killing trees to executing bits: a survey of computer-enabled reading enhancements for evolving literacy

Abstract

The technology-enabled future of reading is broadly surveyed. Through innovations in digital typography and electronic publishing, computers enable new styles of reading. Audio and music, animation, video, multimedia, hypermedia, and live documents extend traditional literacy. Several classes of systems and instances thereof - including commercial projects, research prototypes, and the author's own systems - are considered, spanning scales from the granularity of a subcharacter up through the scope of the internet. Enhanced capabilities include character articulation, word-sized graphs and images, textual animation, spatial browsing, stereographic display, complementary multimedia, dynamic interaction, and duplex reading. A document can be considered a database, through which almost arbitrary slices can be made, reprojecting contents according to reader initiative.