Technology brings new life to children’s books
At first glance, the children’s book shows a one-dimensional picture of a lion. But hover a smartphone over the page, and the lion springs up in front of you.
The book is among the creations of Interactive Art, a Deerfield Beach company that uses augmented reality to make computergenerated images look like they’re moving before your eyes.
Company founder Chris White released the first of its book series, Animal Kingdom, last fall. Since then, he’s sold more than 15,000 copies at $29.95 each.
He expects to push out four more Animal Kingdom books this year, with $650,000 in funding from private investors. The new books will feature marine animals, insects, dinosaurs and household pets. That’s helped him boost his business to 21 full-time employees and seven more part time.
Some schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties already offer the books for their kindergarten and elementary students. Copies are available at Amazon.com.
A tech consultant with friends at Pixar animation studios, White came up with the idea of using augmented reality to offer what he calls “tomorrow’s learning.”
It helps that he is the father of two children, now ages 4 and 6. He’s seen how quickly children can maneuver mobile devices and learn in interactive ways.
“For us, we feel kindergarten through fifth grade are the most impressionable types of kids,” White said. “We want to use this technology to really help children have a better way of learning.”
White started his venture with $50,000. He sees multimilliondollar opportunity in creating books with augmented reality that can offer everything from shop class to teaching chemistry and math to middle and high school students.
Augmented reality is a field expected to take off this decade. Tech advisory firm Digi-Capital forecasts $120 billion in revenues for the augmented reality companies in 2020. Pioneers include Gravity Jack, popular for comic book makers, and Daqri, working with Legos to make blocks turn into full 3-D models.
White’s first book does more than have a pink flamingo rising from the page near a pond. It lets readers feed and pet the animals.
Readers also can see facts about each featured animal like their
class, habitat, size, diet and population size.
Taylor Terrell, an 11-year-old who bought the book in September, said he learned flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp.
“It’s exciting. It’s like opening up a present,” Terrell said. “I learn where the animals live, and I get to see how they sleep or eat.”
The digital images she sees are generated using software called Unity, the
of
same used to custom build video games for PCs, consoles, websites and mobile devices, White said.
Monica Vigna, the lower school campus principal of Sagemont School, said the books are a great visual tool. The private school in Weston offered a few cop-
ies of Animal Kingdom in each grade level last year.
“I saw the kids who used it to be really focused and tuned in with what was happening,” Vigna said. “The hands-on touching and seeing [what the animals do] meets our curriculum style.”
“We want to use this technology to really help children have a better way of learning.”
Chris White, founder Interactive Art