You likely have no idea what I’m talking about, which is why you should continue reading.
Microsoft was awarded a patent today that could change the entire reading experience. Books. Magazines. Newspapers. All of it. Now you’re probably wondering how they plan on doing this. Well it looks like they’re planning on doing it through what is described as a “blended reality” headset (HoloLens). The headset and the patent would work together through augmented reality tags and sensors to display characters and scenes from the book AS YOU READ. That’s pretty damn great.
Imagine reading through an intense shootout between 5-10 people and getting to experience that. Or a fight to the death between two characters. Or just about any kind of action sequence. I personally think certain genres will work better with this technology than others, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t be embraced by most readers. I have no idea how well this will catch on, but this technology aims to greatly improve the reading experience, and I see no reason why it won’t.
You can read an article about the patent and headset here.
What do you think about changing the reading experience with the use of this blended reality technology?
On this day in 2014 I published Your Favorite Bookstore.
Johnny Reads 
I’d rather turn on my movie’s subtitles.
While it sounds awesome, and as a kid I’d probably flip over it, as an adult I appreciate that books allow me to create my OWN story. I think this is an inherent aspect of what sets books apart from movies and why many say “the book was better”–we create the movies ourselves while reading.
Done properly, I think it could be fantastic. But I wouldn’t want it to detract from my own imagination.
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I too think it’s a cool idea, but would rather read. It worries me that we’re having fewer opportunities to use our imaginations and memories as technology improves.
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I think with how interactive it is with each reader that it’d be very different from a typical movie.
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Not going to work for deaf people. How disappointing.
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I’m not sure if that’s accurate.
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I’d love to check it out, it sounds super cool and sci-fi-ish. I’d have to see it to form a further opinion though.
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Of course.
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Hard to imagine it. This sounds like a movie more than a book. I like “seeing” a book in my imagination.
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I think it will be very different from a movie. It’ll be different for every reader.
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Reblogged this on Josies Book Corner and commented:
Introducing a new way of boosting your reading experience! Book worms, this piece of technology sounds very, very interesting indeed…
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[…] I first learned about the HoloLens here. You could check it […]
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The question is how good is it for your eyes? I live witnessing a book like a movie in my own imagination. I wonder what the limitations would be with such technology because it’s like video games where they recommend only playing for an allotted time.
The other thing that scares me is the elimination of just the “old days” where technology isn’t involved in everything. Imagine what the world would come to when someone says, “I can’t read my HoloLens is broken…” Whereas a book can always be opened!
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You obviously have reservations about this, but I think it’ll be pretty great.
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I think this will be a very useful and exciting tool for a lot of people, especially if it encourages people to read more, but I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to reading. While trekking across country this week, I listened to an audio book and a quarter of another audio book. While it helped to pass the time, I can’t say that I enjoyed it. I don’t think, since I barely stand audiobooks, that I’d like the hololens thing. But who knows? Never say never, right?
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I think it’s just something different. Surely it won’t appeal to everyone, but reading isn’t interesting to a lot of people. I think this could help and be utilized as a teaching tool, perhaps.
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I concur.
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