Augmented book or integrated book
The term augmented book has a double meaning: in the case of the digital book, it involves inserting additional reading levels. For example, the internal Wikinet of Montecristo Project, contained in the ePub – Kindle – Kobo editions. In the paper book, however, it is an integration with the potential of digital, to obtain the best of both worlds.
At present the only way to carry out this integration is to use QR Codes. Each of us now has at least one smartphone in our pocket, and all new smartphones are capable of reading a QR Code. The QRCode can also have nice graphics and include a logo or symbol (or, in this case, a glyph) in its center.
The augmented book does not disturb linear reading: the extra materials are at another level, they can stimulate interest and curiosity but do not force the reader to stop for further information; ironically, the entire book can be easily read the first time without using the internal Wikinet or the web pages linked to the individual scenes.
I consider this particularly respectful towards those who read, who are free to choose their own reading level.
At the same time, the Web part of the work remains updatable and susceptible to continuous enrichment by the author, opening up new and unprecedented possibilities of communication between author and readers.
The digital augmented book
In the image above, a sample page of the e-book, the digital version of The Montecristo Project – La Prima Colonia. The blue writing indicates the various elements of the page.
Each scene is preceded by a Glyph: a symbol, a letter of any alphabet, a part of a scientific formula or more. The Glyph is a key to further understanding the scene, it has a symbolic and semantic connection with its content that can be discovered by the reader, or suggested on the relevant web page, or a combination of both.
Next to the Glyph, a personalized QRCode which, if framed with the smartphone, takes you to the scene’s web page (in Italian, for now), in case the e-book reader does not have Internet browsing functions. Otherwise, the QRCode also contains a link to the page itself that can be reached directly from the e-book reader. The same link is contained in the Title.
In the second column we notice the term AI in red: this tells us that it is a reference to the Internal Wikinet and that therefore by clicking it we can access the relevant entry:
The internal Wikipedia of the digital augmented book
Above you see the first entry (reference) of the Wikinet internal to the digital book on the topic of AI – Artificial Intelligence (in this example it is very short, but it must be taken into account that each entry grows together with the plot).
Below, the two possibilities: on the left the learn more link and the QRCode both take you to the reference web page, where I will gradually add a third level of insight. On the right, the Glyph and the item “Return to text” take you back to the reading point where we started from.
Navigation within the digital augmented book is therefore simplified to the maximum, in order to allow the smoothest possible use of a rather complex hypertextual structure spread across multiple media.
The augmented paper book
This is what the first page of Chapter 1 looks like in the paperback version of “The First Colony”. Again, the blue text indicates the interactive elements on the page.
While waiting for the miracles of the graphene electronic paper, currently also being studied at the Sant’Anna Institute in Pisa, in the case of the paper book we must for now “settle” for personalized QRCodes to have access to in-depth and multimedia contents / interactive.
On this page there are three of them: in addition to the one that leads to the scene’s web page, there are also two references from the internal Wiki: SecurPol e AntiTech.
What do you think of the augmented book?
I worked hard to find this solution, simple and at the same time full of interesting potential. It allows you to read the book in a linear way, without having to jump to footnotes every time. The notes solution would almost double the length of the paper book, and in any case it would not be practical.
At the same time the augmented book provides readers with a convenient system to delve deeper and interact with the story and the author.
Obviously the future will reserve us increasingly perfected versions and rich in possibilities of the augmented book, but in my opinion the important thing is that linear reading always remains as the “basic interface” of the book: deep roots are not reached by the frost, wrote someone very important to me.
I’d like to know what you think, maybe come and write it on the Group or on the Facebook Page, or on Twitter or on LinkedIn. I wait for you.
Edoardo Volpi Kellermann
