Wearable book that lets you feel characters' emotions

NEW YORK: Hold your breath. Researchers at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) media lab
have designed a wearable book that make readers quite
literally feel what the book's characters are feeling.
The book, titled "The Girl Who Was Plugged In", is part of an
MIT project called 'Sensory Fiction'.
The book includes 150 LED lights and a series of sensors
and actuators wired to a vest that readers wear.
Depending on how the plot unfolds, the augmented book
generates vibrations and ambient light to simulate a
character or story's mood, said a press release issued by
MIT.
"The Sensory Fiction author is provided with new means of
conveying plot, mood and emotion while still allowing space
for the reader's imagination," said the release.
"These tools can be wielded to create an immersive
storytelling experience tailored to the reader," it added.
For example, a fearful passage triggers the vest's body
compression system to constrict and get tighter around the
wearer's stomach and back.
Vibration patterns during exciting passages cause the heart
rate to increase, while more sombre moments might trigger
a soft, dark light.
The vest's localised body temperature control might heat up
during a particularly embarrassing section, the release
added.