MIT engineers create a vest to help you feel characters' experiences as you read
We鈥檝e all felt our heartbeat accelerate as Katniss of 鈥�The Hunger Games鈥� evades pursuers or felt ourselves longing for a cold glass of water when F. Scott Fitzgerald鈥檚 Nick Carraway describes a hot Long Island summer.
But now engineers at the have made it possible for you to physically experience what the character you鈥檙e reading about is going through, from an increase in temperature to a heightened heartbeat to lighting, sound, and more.
MIT engineers Felix Heibeck, Alexis Hope, and Julie Legault created a black vest for a class that is worn by the reader and hooked up to an e-book. Their test book was 鈥淭he Girl Who Was Plugged In,鈥� a story by James Tiptree in which the character experiences hot weather in Barcelona and captivity in a basement as well as a wide range of emotions.
鈥淵ou feel this story in your gut 鈥� it is an amazing example of the power of fiction to make us feel and empathize with the protagonist," Hope told . "Because our imaginations and emotions were so strongly moved by this story, we wondered how we could heighten that experience.鈥�
The vest is only a prototype, and there are no plans to create more or market them, said Hope.
