Up until now, the books and the radio were considered two completely different ways of transmitting and receiving information. However, it seems that the creativity of two students from the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea of Milan will change this concept for good, since they have invented the radio-book.


No, we're not talking about a radio receiver shaped like a book, or the other way around. Such a device would have been way too simple. Vinay Venkatraman and Pei Yu, the two inventors, have created a book that doubles as a digital radio receiver, which works in a very simple manner. All the user has to do in order to change the stations is flip the pages of the book, and in order to change the volume, he/she must slide the bookmark. Moreover, the user can establish his favorite stations just by writing on their corresponding pages.

A great advantage of the radio-book is the fact that is has no visible technological elements, as for example buttons, screens or dials. The entire device is controlled by a mini-computer which can be found in the book's spine, the included software detecting the position of the pages by measuring the density of the paper and automatically scanning for the radio stations.

The radio-book communicates wirelessly with a fixes station with speakers, but can also be used with headphones, like a common personal digital music player. As for its future, the inventors are quite optimistic, because the concept is quite an interesting one, incorporating technology in our daily lives in a very innovative manner.


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