TED2011
Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book
Filmed:
Readability: 3.8
1,728,557 views
Software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth."
Mike Matas - Software engineer
While at Apple, Mike Matas helped write the user interface for the iPhone and iPad. Now with Push Pop Press, he's helping to rewrite the electronic book. Full bio
While at Apple, Mike Matas helped write the user interface for the iPhone and iPad. Now with Push Pop Press, he's helping to rewrite the electronic book. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
So for the past year and a half,
0
0
2000
00:17
my team at Push Pop Press
1
2000
2000
00:19
and Charlie Melcher and Melcher Media
2
4000
2000
00:21
have been working on creating
3
6000
2000
00:23
the first feature-length interactive book.
4
8000
2000
00:25
It's called "Our Choice"
5
10000
2000
00:27
and the author is Al Gore.
6
12000
2000
00:29
It's the sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth,"
7
14000
2000
00:31
and it explores all the solutions
8
16000
2000
00:33
that will solve the climate crisis.
9
18000
2000
00:35
The book starts like this. This is the cover.
10
20000
3000
00:39
As the globe spins,
11
24000
2000
00:41
we can see our location,
12
26000
2000
00:43
and we can open the book
13
28000
3000
00:46
and swipe through the chapters
14
31000
2000
00:48
to browse the book.
15
33000
2000
00:51
Or, we can scroll through the pages at the bottom.
16
36000
3000
00:55
And if we wanted to zoom into a page,
17
40000
2000
00:57
we can just open it up.
18
42000
2000
00:59
And anything you see in the book,
19
44000
2000
01:01
you can pick up with two fingers
20
46000
2000
01:03
and lift off the page
21
48000
2000
01:05
and open up.
22
50000
2000
01:07
And if you want to go back
23
52000
2000
01:09
and read the book again,
24
54000
2000
01:11
you just fold it back up and put it back on the page.
25
56000
3000
01:15
And so this works the same way; you pick it up and pop it open.
26
60000
3000
01:18
(Audio) Al Gore: I consider myself
27
63000
2000
01:20
among the majority
28
65000
2000
01:22
who look at windmills and feel
29
67000
2000
01:24
they're a beautiful addition to the landscape.
30
69000
2000
01:26
Mike Matas: And so throughout the whole book,
31
71000
2000
01:28
Al Gore will walk you through and explain the photos.
32
73000
3000
01:31
This photo, you can you can even see on an interactive map.
33
76000
3000
01:35
Zoom into it and see where it was taken.
34
80000
3000
01:40
And throughout the book,
35
85000
2000
01:42
there's over an hour of documentary footage
36
87000
2000
01:44
and interactive animations.
37
89000
2000
01:46
So you can open this one.
38
91000
3000
01:49
(Audio) AG: Most modern wind turbines consist of a large ...
39
94000
3000
01:52
MM: It starts playing immediately.
40
97000
2000
01:54
And while it's playing, we can pinch and peak back at the page,
41
99000
3000
01:57
and the movie keeps playing.
42
102000
2000
01:59
Or we can zoom out to the table of contents,
43
104000
3000
02:02
and the video keeps playing.
44
107000
3000
02:07
But one of the coolest things in this book
45
112000
2000
02:09
are the interactive infographics.
46
114000
2000
02:11
This one shows the wind potential
47
116000
2000
02:13
all around the United States.
48
118000
2000
02:15
But instead of just showing us the information,
49
120000
3000
02:18
we can take our finger and explore,
50
123000
3000
02:21
and see, state by state,
51
126000
2000
02:23
exactly how much wind potential there is.
52
128000
2000
02:25
We can do the same for geothermal energy
53
130000
3000
02:30
and solar power.
54
135000
2000
02:38
This is one of my favorites.
55
143000
2000
02:40
So this shows ...
56
145000
3000
02:45
(Laughter)
57
150000
4000
02:49
(Applause)
58
154000
2000
02:51
When the wind is blowing,
59
156000
2000
02:53
any excess energy coming from the windmill
60
158000
3000
02:56
is diverted into the battery.
61
161000
2000
02:58
And as the wind starts dying down,
62
163000
2000
03:00
any excess energy will be diverted back into the house --
63
165000
2000
03:02
the lights never go out.
64
167000
3000
03:08
And this whole book, it doesn't just run on the iPad.
65
173000
3000
03:11
It also runs on the iPhone.
66
176000
3000
03:14
And so you can start reading on your iPad in your living room
67
179000
2000
03:16
and then pick up where you left off on the iPhone.
68
181000
2000
03:18
And it works the exact same way.
69
183000
2000
03:20
You can pinch into any page.
70
185000
2000
03:22
Open it up.
71
187000
2000
03:38
So that's Push Pop Press' first title,
72
203000
2000
03:40
Al Gore's "Our Choice."
73
205000
2000
03:42
Thank you.
74
207000
2000
03:44
(Applause)
75
209000
8000
03:52
Chris Anderson: That's spectacular.
76
217000
3000
03:55
Do you want to be a publisher,
77
220000
2000
03:57
a technology licenser?
78
222000
2000
03:59
What is the business here?
79
224000
2000
04:01
Is this something that other people can do?
80
226000
2000
04:03
MM: Yeah, we're building a tool
81
228000
2000
04:05
that makes it really easy for publishers right now to build this content.
82
230000
3000
04:08
So Melcher Media's team, who's on the East coast --
83
233000
2000
04:10
and we're on the West coast, building the software --
84
235000
3000
04:13
takes our tool
85
238000
2000
04:15
and, every day, drags in images and text.
86
240000
3000
04:18
CA: So you want to license this software to publishers
87
243000
3000
04:21
to make books as beautiful as that? (MM: Yes.)
88
246000
2000
04:23
All right. Mike, thanks so much.
89
248000
2000
04:25
MM: Thank you. (CA: Good luck.)
90
250000
2000
04:27
(Applause)
91
252000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mike Matas - Software engineerWhile at Apple, Mike Matas helped write the user interface for the iPhone and iPad. Now with Push Pop Press, he's helping to rewrite the electronic book.
Why you should listen
Mike Matas has worked on some of the most intriguing tech projects of the past 10 years. As a (surprisingly) young coder, he co-founded Delicious Monster, makers of the elegant cataloguing tool Delicious Library. In 2005 he went to work for Apple, where he designed user interfaces and artwork for the iPhone, the iPad and Mac OS X.
Now, he's the co-founder of Push Pop Press, a digital publishing company just purchased by Facebook. Push Pop's first title is Al Gore's "Our Choice," playable on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
In his free time, he's a photographer >>
Mike Matas | Speaker | TED.com