The Wearable Book That Shows You How You Should Feel
Written by Trevor Eaton, Posted on , in Section Inspirational
There is a new technology being developed where a person reading a book doesn’t just have to use their imagination, but they can also feel what the character is going through. It’s called a wearable book and companies are starting to look for ways to incorporate it into their books. Are we really that lazy that we can’t even figure out how the character is suppose to feel without someone telling us, and who really wants to suit up everytime they want to read?
A suit with all the bells and whistles
Here’s how it works, as you read the device controls the suit depending on what is going on in the story. LED’s on the outside of the book will light up according to the mood of the character in the book, if they are depressed, then the lighting will dim, if they are excited, then the lighting will get brighter. In addition to the lighting, the reader wears a suit that has inflatable air pockets, a vibrator, and heat sensors that surround the person. A scared character can make the air pressure bags inflate constricting the reader and making them feel tighter. If the character is excited a vibration pattern influences your heart rate and can make it beat faster. Embarrassed, a heating device on the vest changes the temperature of your skin to feel warmer.
Is all this technology really necessary?
Isn’t the joy of reading a book so that you can use your imagination? Do we really need a suit to help us feel how the characters are feeling? Take a look at the evolution of movie watching, it used to be that you would go to the theater and would watch a silent film in black and white while a person played a piano for background music. Skip ahead to today when you go to the theater you can watch the latest movie in 3D High Definition, with surround sound, and rumble seats to feel the action.
It really comes down to personal preference, just like some people think the “extras” at a movie theater take away from the experience, just as some may feel the wearable reading suit adds to it. It wouldn’t make any more sense to wear it while reading War and Peace, as it would to watch Casablanca in 3D setting in the rumble seats. This is definitely a niche product that might make reading more enjoyable for those that don’t usually like to read.
