Session: Supporting Art & Literature February 11-15, 2012, Seattle, WA, USA People in Books: Using a FlashCam to Become Part of an Interactive Book for Connected Reading Sean Follmer1, Rafael Ballagas2, Hayes Raffle3, Mirjana Spasojevic2, Hiroshi Ishii1 1Tangible Media Group 2Nokia Research Center 3Google MIT Media Lab 955 Page Mill Road #200 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway 77 Massachusetts Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94304 Mountain View, CA 94043 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA {tico.ballagas, mirjana.spasojevic}
[email protected] {sean, ishii}@media.mit.edu @nokia.com ABSTRACT We introduce People in Books with FlashCam technology, INTRODUCTION Today’s families are increasingly diasporic, and are turning a system that supports children and long-distance family to the Internet to help bridge distances and maintain ties members to act as characters in children’s storybooks while [15]. Cheap long distance phone calls and free video they read stories together over a distance. By segmenting conferencing have made it easier for adults to keep in the video chat streams of the child and remote family contact with other adult family members. However, member from their background surroundings, we create the communication with children remains quite difficult both illusion that the child and adult reader are immersed among over phone and over videoconference for a number of the storybook illustrations. The illusion of inhabiting a reasons [2]. shared story environment helps remote family members feel a sense of togetherness and encourages active reading One problem the community has identified in engaging behaviors for children ages three to five. People In Books is children in teleconferencing or phone calls, especially those designed to fit into families’ traditional reading practices, under the age of five, is the implicit assumption that the such as reading ebooks on couches or in bed via netbook or best way to support relationships is through conversation.