Next time you read Homer's
Odyssey, don't be embarrassed if your e-reader suddenly outputs seductive songs, in particular when you're somewhere in the middle of the book where Odysseus approaches the island of the lovely Sirens. Google has applied to
patent a system that plays sounds that are associated with a user's reading location within an e-book.
Quote:
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The above and other issues are addressed by a computer-implemented method, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and a computer system for triggering sounds in an eBook. An embodiment of the method includes receiving trigger point information from a client. An eBook is analyzed to determine trigger point information for the eBook. The trigger point information includes information identifying a location of a trigger point in the eBook. The trigger point information also includes sound information indicating a sound to play at the trigger point. The determined trigger point information is transmitted to the client in response to the request for trigger point information. The client is configured to track a user's reading location in the eBook and play the sound indicated by the sound information responsive to the user reading the eBook at the location of the trigger point.
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In one variety of the implementation it's the responsibility of a remote "sound server" with a "sound database", which is connected via WiFi or 3G to the reading device, providing sounds in response to specific trigger points. In another implementation, trigger points don't need to be specified individually in every book; rather, a book would receive a unique identifier and a client could access a remote trigger point database to fetch the related sound information.
The concept is simple enough that we wouldn't be surprised to find it in future reading apps.