Wearable Book Creates Sensory Reading Experience

Reading may soon be experienced in a whole new way with a "wearable book" that creates physical sensations based on the written word.

The project, called "Sensory Fiction," comes out of the MIT Media Lab. The reader wears a vest-like contraption that uses effects such as ambient lighting, vibration, temperature and compression to produce physical sensations that represent setting and emotion described in a story.

The pre-programmed responses are set to go off via sensors and actuators (a type of motor) once the reader is on the right page. If a character is love the suit might vibrate to increase the reader's heart rate and if a character is cold it might lower the reader's skin temperature, for example. Read more...