NEWS
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Electric Book is pleased to announce that its collaboration and annotation tool iAnnotate has been enhanced to add AI scoring for searches against NASA's image library.
iAnnotate is a site that searches the NASA image database, allowing users to highlight or point to an area within the image for exchange with other users. The application allows teams to discuss complex imagery without the need to download, mark up, and re-send image files to team members. The application is ideal for students, educators, and researchers using NASA images for their work.
The current version of iAnnotate adds AI scoring to searches - text entered by the user is applied to NASA description and keyword properties to apply a score of 0-1 to the top 100 results returned by the conventional search engine.
Users search the NASA image database, and attach pointers or selection rectangles to the image as regions of interest. A URL is then built which can be sent to other users. An example of such a reference to a region illustrating gravitational lensing may be found here.
Additional information on how the iAnnotate application can be used may be obtained by using the Contact us. page.
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Electric Book Company is pleased to unveil an exciting new tool from its Cholabris collaboration brand of services.
Users wishing to access and discuss any of the hundreds of thousands of images available from NASA can now use an image annotation helper (iAnnotate) site to reference specific points or regions of an image.
Using the annotation helper, individuals can search for NASA images by keywords or terms found in the image description meta-data, and select a portion of the image to be highlighted. The resulting URL can be exchanged with any user as part of on-line dialog.
The application is ideal when the image contains complex content which would otherwise force users to download image files, import then into a graphic tool, then transfer a marked up file to others. The iAnnotate tool includes highlighting information in the shared URL, so no download is necessary.
Electric Book encourages anyone interested in accessing NASA’s extensive library of images for use in education, scientific discussion, or engineering to check out the application at the Cholabris Image Annotation Helper site.
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Electric Book is pleased to announce seven new chapters in its Origins By Geometry title.
The latest chapters in the section ‘Math in the Sky’, cover the basic evolution of the chord function and its role in helping ancient astronomers better understand planetary objects (and to design better sundials).
These latest chapters illustrate the importance played by the circle, angles, and chords in measuring movement of objects across an arc of travel. While not exhaustive in its coverage of the topic of Geometry, the Origins title endeavors to educate and inspire learners of all ages to see how a few mathematical propositions can fuel innovative views of our world that eventually led to modern astronomy.
As is the case with all chapters, the ‘Math in the Sky’ section combines Scalable Vector Graphics with advanced Javascript to provide an innovative reading experience based on the company’s adjacent content display model, an approach designed to maximize the value of illustration rich content.
Visit our Math in the Sky section to access the latest chapters in Origins By Geometry.
Enjoy!
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Just in time to mark PI-Day (3/14), Electric Book is pleased to roll out its newest series of booklets, ‘Origins By Geometry’.
The site traces the development of some of the most significant geometric propositions that eventually led ancient Greek geometers to develop an early estimation of the value of pi.
These explanations make innovative use of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) to better connect narratives to portions of complex illustrations and figures; EBC editors believe such a presentation model is essential to improve the effectiveness of technical publishing.
The EBC team will periodically add chapters to Origins By Geometry with content that highlights the use of mathematics through the ages – eventually leading to the basic rules which guide today’s understanding of how our world works.
Enjoy!
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When learning material involves unfamiliar terminology or techniques, it is important for a student to see or hear the terms and methods applied through a number of different presentations. Just reading the terms ‘instantaneous velocity’ once, in a single sentence or problem, isn’t enough to drive a new concept home.
How great would it be for a student who reads the words 'angular momentum' to quickly access a video where s/he hears the same terms used in other examples and settings.
At Electric Book, we supplement text-based review materials with streamlined tools that allow students to not only search for terms through the booklet, but also apply queries against transcripts of some of the best Open CourseWare videos available.
And now, we are announcing our most ambitious Electric Booklet project.
Our University Physics booklet combines the outstanding text published by OpenStax, University Physics, Volume 1, with 170 videos from MIT’s Open CourseWare project Classical Mechanics. The result is a physics review booklet which provides a one stop site where a student can view quality example problems in text and graphics, AND search the transcripts of curated videos to find audio segments from the MIT site. Both the textbook and the videos are published under a creative commons license.
When a student searches for terms throughout the suite of videos (we calls these ‘Study Suites’), only the MIT video transcripts are searched, reducing the amount of time otherwise wasted on unsatisfactory search results.
This innovative combination of best-of-breed textbooks with integrated search of selected videos allows students to quickly see (and hear) how complex terms or methods are used in multiple presentations – be they text-base example problems or on-line lecture presentations. These varied perspectives of a subject give students a leg up on mastering difficult material when compared to the use of traditional publications and e-learning sites.
The ‘University Physics’ study suite, combining University Physics – Volume 1 text and MIT Open CourseWare video, is just one example of how other colleges, universities, and companies can leverage their video content by working with Electric Book to provide study suites for their students or employees.
See this illustration for an example of how video search is connected to our University Physics booklet. You can reach the starting point for the demo at our Bookshelf.
If your school or organization is trying to find new channels to leverage your investment in quality video content, contact Electric Book to explore the possibility of building a custom study suite for your students.