In my post entitled Pop-up Poetry I wrote about the book/experience Between Page and Screen. Print, art and AR technology mix in very interesting ways, including this one, but I point out (with three brilliant examples) that this project is not the first case of a "magic book."
Like many similar works of its genre, Between Page and Screen uses FLARToolKit to project (display) images over a live video coming from the camera that is pointed at the book's pages. Other tools used in Between Page and Screen include the Robot Legs framework, Papervision for 3D effects, BetweenAS3 for animation and JibLib Flash. Any computer (whose user has first downloaded the application) with a webcam can play the book, which will be published in April. Ah ha! I thought it was available immediately, but now learn that one can only pre-order it from SiglioPress.com.
And, as suggests Joann Pan in her post about the book on Mashable, "combining the physicality of a printed book with the technology of Adobe Flash to create a virtual love story" is different. Pan interviewed the author and writer of the AR code. She writes, "Borsuk, whose background is in book art and writing, and Bouse, developing his own startup, were mesmerized by the technology. The married duo combined their separate love of writing and technology to create this augmented reality art project that would explore the relationship between handmade books and digital spaces."
The more I've thought about this project and read various posts about Between Page and Screen, in recent days, the more confident I am that I might experience a magic book once or twice, but my preferred reading experience is to hold a well-written, traditional book. I decided to come back to this topic after I read about another type of "interactive" book on TechCrunch.
First thing that caught my eye was the title. Fallen Lake. Fallen Leaf Lake! Of course! I used to live in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the action in this novel is set, and Fallen Leaf Lake is an exceptionally beautiful body of water. But the post by John Biggs points out that the author of Fallen Lake, Laird Harrison, is going to be posting clues and "extra features" about the characters in the book by way of a password protected blog.
All these technology embellishments on books seem complicated. They're purpose, Biggs believes, is to differentiate the work in order to get some tech blogger to write about the book and then, maybe, sell more copies.
Finally, Biggs points out that what he really wants in a book, what we all want and what will "save publishing," is good (excellent) writing. Gimmicks like AR and blog posts might add value, but first let's make sure the content is well worth the effort.