Zach King: My Magical Life uses augmented reality to bring story to life
This morning on my drive to work in my mobile classroom, I listened to an interview with an author of a new children’s book, Zach King: My Magical Life. I was amazed at what they discussed.
According to the podcast, recently developed and published a hard covered book that includes the use of Augmented Reality (AR). AR has been around a while, but something that uses it that you may be familiar with is the Pokemon Go app. In the app, you can look through your cell phone camera, and you can see animated Pokemon you are trying to catch come to life in front of you through your camera. That is Augmented Reality. This book comes to life for young children. As they scan the pages through a camera on a mobile device using the app that comes with the book, characters are alive in front of them.
This book with an app using AR is the first of it’s kind. The author also has a movie contract for his new story. He wanted to get kids reading, and wanted to use his film skills for a children’s book – the result is a revolutionary use of his talent.
“The book comes complete with a code for a downloadable app that brings Zach’s vibrant world to fully animated, three-dimensional life. Zach King: My Magical Life is also coming to theaters soon, as the project has been picked up by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.”
How cool is this?
Imagine what the next generation will be “reading”! Hey Zach, if you are reading, send me a copy!
If you want to see more of Zach King’s film work, here’s a compilation of his vine videos — fun to watch if you have the time.