May 18, 2012
Is this the laziest book-related app of all time?
by Dennis Johnson
A screen capture of the ShelfLook app
The description on the iTunes page for this app tells you what you need to know: “Do you hate turning your neck sideways to read book titles at libraries and bookstores? Or scrunching down as well to view lower shelves? With SHELFLOOK, those days are over!” Yes, it takes a picture of vertical spines and shows them horizontally.
Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.
One Comment
Hi Dennis, my name is David from Azymous Interactive, and
I’m the author of ShelfLook. Thanks for writing about our app. I would like to
mention, though, that Laziness was the furthest thing from our minds as we
created ShelfLook. Originally the idea for ShelfLook came about because I was
book shopping with my family (which we love to do!) and was suffering from a
pinched nerve in my neck. Tilting my head to look at the book titles was
literally a pain in the neck! I discussed the idea with family, friends, staff,
and patrons at our local libraries. It turns out there is a huge population of elderly, injured, disabled, or otherwise
physically challenged folks who could benefit from the app. People with bad
backs, including my father, were simply not even looking at lower shelves
anymore. In short, there was a very positive motivation for creating ShelfLook.
In our beta testing, we found that lots of people really enjoyed the app,
including those with no physical challenges at all. Most people’s reaction was
that the ShelfLook was “cool”, “fun”, “useful”, or “great idea”. All the best, David
PS – ShelfLook does not take a picture then rotate it. The
live video input from the iPhone is rotated before being displayed, so users
can just walk along the shelves and easily read the book titles horizontally.