Photo: Pixabay
Augmented Reality (AR) is probably best known from Pokemon GO, a popular game that had millions of players walking the streets staring at their phones, looking for elusive, virtual beasts. Since these beasts could appear pretty much anywhere, from the White House gym to hospital delivery rooms, this generated much publicity and blasted AR into the forefront of new technologies.
So, it’s nice to see people using AR for something less distracting. In fact, I recently came across Bookful, a book app that shows the direction books may take in the near future. Even though I still have to take the plunge into the world of audiobooks, I’m already drooling at the prospect of converting books like Musiville and Runaway Smile into an app like this!
Bookful uses AR to enhance the real-life environment by adding computer-generated objects into your existing surroundings. In simpler terms, you download a book, point your tablets at, say, a table, and watch the book’s characters “come to life”–i.e. pop up from the pages into lovely 3D animations.
Perhaps a video can explain it best:
Bookful’s website makes it clear that they aim at the education market as well as the household one:
AR is an incredibly powerful tool that deeply enhances the educational value of a book. Augmented reality makes reading fun and exciting, which instills in children a strong passion for it. By making plot and characters interactive, augmented reality allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of a book’s content… AR book animations also provide relevant facts and information that go beyond the pages of a book.
Interestingly enough, Bookful is following the so-called fremium model: it’s free to download but contains in-app purchases. At the moment, about a dozen titles are available for download, including some of Beatrix Potter’s beloved ones.
Sadly, Bookful is only available for iOS devices (I own multiple Android ones but have steered clear from Apple), so I guess I’ll have to wait until I can see it in action for myself… unless I manage to convince people to fund a campaign for me to develop an app for my own books. And, as long as I’m dreaming, a pony would be nice. In a pinch, even an AR one would do 🙂
Many thanks to my author friend, Marina Gioti, for alerting me to the app.
Very interesting info, Nicholas. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thank you, Dorothy! Glad you found it of interest 😀
I too have no plans to purchase IOS devices. So far I don’t have Android either, but I probably will once my Windows phone finally dies. Something else I’m not (currently) interested in is audiobooks. I tried audio in the days when I started commuting by car and missed my read on the train (we’re going back a bit now…) but the speakers didn’t read the stories the way I imagined them. (There wasn’t much available back then, so most of those I borrowed from the library, I’d read before.) These AR books look brilliant for my grandchildren though. I’m not sure I’d fancy the technology for some of the more gory crime or horror novels though.
Gosh, no, I’m with you on the gory books! As for audiobooks, I, too, haven’t been able to get into them. That’s probably because I don’t commute, though.
It does look amazing, I agree. But is it reading, or watching? And I dread to think of how much you would have to pay to get ‘Musiville’ animated in this way, or the price you would have to charge per copy to recoup those production costs.
Still, I don’t want to sound like a grump! With the ‘right’ books, this could be a wonderful experience, I’m sure.
Best wishes, Pete.
I agree on all these points. The thing is, I’ve noticed how important this kind of interaction can be for kids, especially if they’re not used to reading. A “rich environment” book like that, for me, can be a gateway to the more traditional ones. As such, it can be an invaluable tool in getting kids to read.