Books come to life when combined with virtual reality – WJLA

Books come to life when combined with virtual reality (ABC7)

Steve Buckley believes the way we read a story to a child is about to change forever.

AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) are mega-trending technologies, Buckley says. "They are going to impact our everyday lives.

Buckley, a Rockville native, was a defense contractor in his previous life dealing in the world of augmented reality and virtual reality devices for the military. As he traveled around the country and world on planes, he began writing children's stories.

So Buckley changed careers and wrote close to 100 children's books. Then one day, a light went off in his brain as he watched a very young child with a smart phone.

You have strollers with two or three-year-olds being handed very powerful device,s but all they are doing is playing with them, Buckley told 7 ON YOUR SIDE. "93 percent of all apps have no educational value.

Buckley decided to walk everyone up to the horizon of a new frontier in education. He married his two passions, partnered with a British tech company and together they created books that read themselves, and with one look through the lens of a smart device or a virtual reality headset, the pages come to life.

You bring in the world of these virtual reality headsets and layering in of augmented reality functions of the next generation of smart phones and tablets you see what's coming. It's going to be a mainstream thing where you put on a set of glasses and it's got this little attachment, says Buckley.

You and your child can now go on an adventure deep inside the pages of a book.

Buckley has published four virtual reality capable books with two more to be released in April by his publishing company Bangarang Books.

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Books come to life when combined with virtual reality - WJLA