Invented by New Zealand’s Human Interface Technology Lab (HIT Lab), led by Dr Mark Billinghurst, the technology delivers 3D images to the reader through a handheld viewing device.

The viewing device has a camera which figures out where a reader is looking and delivers computer graphics from exactly the same viewpoint, via a set of attached ‘spectacles’.

It can deliver a total virtual experience, allowing readers to explore the pictures in exhaustive detail.

One of the first books to get the high-tech treatment was called Giant Jimmy Jones by New Zealand writer / illustrator Gavin Bishop. For the author, it meant having to address issues he had never considered before, including covering all angles of what his giant character looked like.

In a textbook about human anatomy, readers will be able to use the Magic Book technology to explore the heart from within, actually ‘moving around’ inside the muscle like a blood corpuscle.

Known as ‘Magic Book’, the technology has already had exposure inside New Zealand, in public places, including museums, but is really starting to attract media attention from around the world, having also been installed in a museum in Australia.

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