Augmented reality poetry book can only be read via webcam

Between Page And Screen is a printed book of poems that relies entirely on augmented reality to convey its words.

We’ve already seen augmented reality used to superimpose text on top of chocolate-bar wrappers and newspaper ads, but now we’ve come across an example of the technology being used in the publishing industry. Between Page And Screen is a printed book of poems that relies entirely on augmented reality to convey its words. The Between Page and Screen poetry book has no text printed on its physical pages. Rather, each page is covered with a stark black and white geometric shape and a web address leading to the book’s website. To read the book, readers must visit that site and hold each page up in front of their webcam, one at a time. Using the reader’s webcam, the site then detects the black and white markers and displays corresponding textual animations mapped to the surface of the page. The animations move with the book, creating the digital equivalent of a pop-up book. The video below demonstrates Between Page and Screen in action:

Written by Amaranth Borsuk and programmed by Brad Bouse, the poems in Between Page and Screen comprise a series of letters between two lovers, P and S, as well as animations based on keywords from their letters. Produced initially as a limited-edition, the book is now available for USD 24.95 from Siglio Press. Authors, publishers, and content producers around the globe: be inspired! Spotted by: Florent Lesauvage