I’m always looking for fun ways to learn. Over the past decade many new methods for learning have been discovered. Not only is information more quickly available, but there are many great new ways to explore it. Interestingly, while technology has taken off, traditional school learning has stayed much the same. Today I’d like to share one of the projects I’ve been working on: An augmented reality children’s bedtime book.
The idea is that you would have a traditional print book that a child could read and enjoy like normal. Point a smartphone at it and the world becomes alive in a beautiful interactive 3D scene. You could see the child rolling in 3D as if floating above the book. You can interact with it, and even have it read to you. It is a fun new twist on reading that hopefully will encourage kid’s to want to read and imagine many worlds they can’t see.
Unfortunately 3D modeling is fairly expensive for a single developer like myself. The story is written, the book is illustrated, the code tested, and I currently have a group working on modeling the first page. My plan is to hopefully garnish interest from others who believe this is a fun new way to learn and to run a campaign on Kickstarter.
I’m really hoping this project pans out, all the pieces are in place for it to turn out wonderfully. But more than this project I imagine a really cool future of learning. Imagine text books where the math jumps o ut of the page and comes alive. Or where you can see the anatomy, geography, or astronomy in 3D as you learn about it. It would encourage you to get up and to circle your book, to view learning from a whole new perspective.
Anyway, it is one of the many projects I’m working on. I should be getting 3D models back soon, and I plan to update with more pictures once I do.