This Wearable Book Creates Sensory Reading Experience

Reading a book may soon be experienced in a whole new way with a “wearable book” which allows the reader to experience the character’s feelings based on the written word.

The project, dubbed ‘Sensory Fiction’, was created by MIT students at MIT’s Media Lab. The reader wears a vest-like contraption that uses effects such as ambient lighting, vibration, temperature and compression to produce physical sensations that represent setting and emotion described in a story.

The equipment includes a body compression system, a heartbeat and shiver simulator and a localized body temperature control—all of which are responsible for the physical effects. The book itself has 150 LEDs positioned onto the book’s cover to create ambient light which changes depending on the mood of the story.

The researchers used a science fiction story, “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by James Tiptree Jr, as their prototype story for creating the wearable book.

“This is not a product idea, but rather an exploration in the context of science fiction stories,” Felix Heibeck, a member of the team responsible for “Sensory Fiction,” told Mashable. “It is an artifact meant to provoke discussions.”

MIT isn’t the only one experimenting with interactive reading. Tony DiTerlizzi’s fantasy novel The Spiderwick Chronicles uses symbols in the printed book that link to 3D representations online. Disney is also experimenting with books that interact with tangible objects the reader controls.

Source: mashable.com, telegraph.co.uk

Photo: Vimeo