Bridging Book is a children's mixed-media picture-book that blurs the line between printed and electronic books. It consists of a printed book and a digital device, placed side-by-side, with synchronized content. Thumbing through the book's pages triggers the device to display the complementary digital content. The physical book requires no batteries or wires.
In the current version, the printed illustrations on each page of the physical book are extended into the device screen, offering further interaction. The content can be explored both linearly by reading and thumbing the printed book and/or exploring the interaction on the digital device.
The Bridging Book combines a physical book containing magnets with a touchscreen tablet that incorporates a built-in digital compass. The synchronization between the thumbing of the physical book and the digital content is achieved by placing magnets on the book pages that change the magnetic field strength detected by the digital compass sensor.
This work is funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Competitiveness Factors Program - COMPETE and by National Funds through the FCT – Portuguese Foundation for the Science and the Technology within the Project: PTDC/CCI-COM/119030/2010, EngageBook: touch, read and play.
Ana Lúcia Pinto, Ana Carina Figueiredo, Pedro Branco, Eduarda Coquet, Ido Iurgel, Nelson Zagalo