Welcome to a new post about the intriguing ways books mix with technology and create new forms of art. While the previous post of this series was all about the book cover that judges its potential readers, this post is about sensory fiction.
Long story short, three MIT students (Felix Heibeck, Alexis Hope, and Julie Legault) created a prototype for what they call sensory fiction, defined as follows:
“Sensory fiction is about new ways of experiencing and creating stories”
The prototype is a “connected book and wearable” – a book equipped with sensors and other tech pieces. Its purpose is to help the reader get into the mood of the book and experience more genuinely the characters’ feelings as (s)he turns the pages.
The sensory fiction system has the following outputs that are in sync with the story that you’re reading:
- light (the LEDs embedded in the book cover create ambient light and suggest a certain mood)
- sound
- heating device (to change skin temperature)
- vibration (to influence the reader’s heart rate)
- compression system (to let the reader feel pressure/lack of pressure)
While I find this project idea intriguing, I am not sure whether I would be one of the early adopters in case of a mass scale production of a similar gadget. On one hand, I am excited about the idea of adding more “experiential” elements to the classic book. On the other hand, maybe the beauty of books lies in their simplicity … and there shouldn’t be additional layers on top of it.
I want to hear your opinions! Would you like to try out this type of book?
Till’ next time … happy reading!
Georgiana
Information source: MIT’s Science Fiction To Science Fabrication
Images fastcodesign.com | flickr.com
Readers' High Tea 
Always a pleasure to review your material, appears you truly do have an ability for creating terrific content!
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Thank you very much! 🙂
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