ABOOK
Augmented Book Set
Contact
Challenge
Although printed books will never disappear, to engage readers with innovative printed materials some examples of augmented books have begun to appear in the marketplace. Usually the concept behind these augmented reality applications is simple: a physical book contains many elements that elude the human eye, only visible through the use of various apps, gadgets and other devices.
A more immersive and magical experience is possible with projection-mapping, developing augmented reality books that you can look directly at. However it has some limitations such as the calibration process that can take a lot of work.
Overview
The Augmented Book Set, provides a new way of story-telling that spans both printed and the audiovisual media. The digital content is actually visualized on the book pages, with no need for glasses or limiting displays. The application involves visual tracking: whereby pages embed visual tags that get recognised by a camera. The acquired tag data let the current page to be associated with one or more related videos that are then projected on the book. Data are also used to estimate the position and the orientation of the book with respect of the table, so that when the video is projected it actually falls in the right place to become a background picture for the story being told. This system relies on three main parts: camera, projector and computer. Our systems have been installed in a variety of fairs and temporary exhibitions. These include:
- Festival della scienza in Cagliari: november 2011;
- Mediateca in Cagliari: december 2011 - march 2012;
- Festival del Gerrei: september - december 2012;
- Futuro prossimo. Riscriviamo insieme la città e i territori. Organized by the Municipality of Cagliari for Cagliari 2019 European Capital of Culture: may - june 2014.
Innovative features
- the computer identifies the page and tracks its relative location and position through the camera, then the augmented reality content is delivered on the page;
- camera, projector and computer come into a built-in device in order to avoid the calibration process and to facilitate the handling of the set.
Potential users
Augmented Book Set is intended for all users.
Impact sectors
Tourism and local area development (expos and fairs) - Infotainment (reception areas) - Museums (interactive exhibitions).
Other resources
- S. Uras, D. Ardu, G. Paddeu, M. Deriu, Do not judge an interactive book by its cover: a field research, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Advances in Mobile Computing & Multimedia, 2012.