Manipulator system man-machine interface evaluation program

Application and requirements for remote manipulator systems for future space missions were investigated. A manipulator evaluation program was established to study the effects of various systems parameters on operator performance of tasks necessary for remotely manned missions. The program and laboratory facilities are described. Evaluation criteria and philosophy are discussed

Noses in Books: Orientation, Immersion, and Paratext

Paratextual aids to reading in medieval codex books, printed codex books, and Kindle ebooks are compared. Medieval scribes designed paratextual elements that enhanced diverse reading practices, from lectio divina to scholarly textual study. Printers adopted and standardized many elements of paratext, and contemporary readers depend on these elements to navigate printed books. Because familiar paratextual aids to reading are less visible in Kindle ebooks, readers find those ebooks harder to navigate. Development of effective ebook paratext must take into account the needs and practices of readers

Multisensory Tristram Shandy

An absorbed reader typically pays little conscious attention to the visual, tactile, and sometimes aural sensory experiences of reading. Unexpected formal and visual features of Laurence Sterne’s nine-volume fictional narrative, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, startle readers out of absorption and call attention to familiar operations like decoding black figures on white paper and turning pages. My edition of Volume I is designed to engage the senses through its visual structure, textures, and unexpected materials (buttons, marbled paper strips, and ribbons) and through formal surprises (interpolated documents, accordion-fold inserts, and paper lace). In its structure and materials, this edition highlights the odd formal features of Sterne’s novel and the cognitive work that the narrator requires of earnest and industrious readers

The Futures of Books: Technologies and Forms

Students often approach discussions about the future of the book with a narrow conception of “the book”: “book” means “codex.” By reading theoretical and historical studies of the book, writing critiques of artists’ books, and creating handmade books, students can examine and question their assumptions about the essential qualities of “the book.” This paper describes a sequence of assignments designed to move students toward analysis of the relationships between forms and content in a variety of printed books, artists’ books, and electronic books. Students come to understand more fully the historical reasons for the development of the codex form and to think more broadly about technologies and formal possibilities of “the book.