MIT scientists have created a new 'wearable' book. Using light and temperatures, the book will allow us to experience the experiences of the characters. The book senses the page a reader has gotten to and changes the lighting and vibrations to match. A vest forms a 'hearbeat and shiver simulator', a compression system, temperature controls and sound.
"Changes in the protagonist's emotional or physical state trigger discrete feedback in the vest, whether by changing heartbeat rate, creating constriction through air pressure bags, or localised temperature changes." say the researchers.
Known as "Sensory Fiction", the idea was developed by Felix Heibeck, Alexis Hope and Julie Legault at MIT's media lab. The tester book was "The Girl Who Was Plugged In"; with a main character who feels "both deep love and ultimate despair, the freedom of Barcelona sunshine and the gloom of a dark, damp, cellar."
"The sensory fiction authour is provided with new means of conveying plot, mood and emotion while still allowing space for the reader's imagination." they say.
Adam Roberts, a prize-winning Science Fiction writer praised the idea as "amazing", but also warned of the dangers of 'infantalising' readers. "It's like reverting to those books for toddlers that have sound-generating buttons."
Personally, I think the idea sounds incredible, and I'd especially love to read something like The Hunger Games using it.
What do you think?
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