Project - 1

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book AR

Team - 12 : Krunal Bhatt, Suhan Nath, Shiva Reddy

Video Demonstration

Introduction

The goal of the application is to create a proof of concept of how AR technology can be used to market books by augmenting information about the book onto the surface of the book, to make it more attractive for a viewer to buy/read the book. We augment the following onto the book:-

1. A scene from the book, is played on the left side of the front cover. The scene includes models, ambient sounds and relevant animations to make the book come to life.

2. A floating title that makes the book easy to spot laying down. An interactive intro button, which makes a character from the book speak out the title and the author of the book.

3. On the back cover, we augment floating text reviews and video reviews, and have added a navigation button that allows the user to switch between multiple review modes and reviews.

4. A language switch button, which changes the language used for all text and reviews on the front and back page that are augmented to make the book more accessible.

Setting up the Application

In Unity:-

  1. Clone/download the Repo from GitHub.
  2. If you haven’t already, download Unity (version 2019.2.3f1) with Vuforia.
  3. Open the scene CharlieChocolateScene, and run it by clicking on the “play” button.
  4. The target files for Front and Back cover can be found here.
  5. Point the camera at the book to view the AR functionality on the surface of the book.

On Android:-

Download the .apk file from this drive.

Softwares/Tools used

  1. Unity Game engine - The base software used for building the AR environment and scene
  2. Vuforia Augmented Reality SDK - Used as a unity plugin to build the AR.
  3. Blender - Used to create models
  4. Youtube to MP3 convertor
  5. iMovie - Used to stitch the video reviews
  6. Paint 3D - Used to create the English title
  7. Canva.com - Used to create the multilanguage review panes
  8. Google translate:- Used for text translation.
  9. HandBrake:- Used for video compression

Model screenshots and source link

  1. Wonka hat
  2. Wonka candy bar
  3. Willy wonka
  4. Oompa loompa
  5. Candy 1 - Self made
  6. Candy 2 - Self made
  7. Chocolate with golden ticket - Self made
  8. Title - Self made
  9. Author - Self made
  10. Chocolate Mining machine
  11. Decontamination Machine
  12. Chocolate factory garden
  13. Cloud
  14. Flying balloon
  15. Chocolate factory
  16. Stars - Self made
  17. Title (Telugu) - Self Made
  18. Title (Kannada) - Self Made
  19. Title (Hindi) - Self Made
  20. Review pane
    1. Page 1
      1. English - Self Made - Text Content ( www.fantasybookreview.co.uk, https://www.commonsensemedia.org , http://www.clarelibrary.ie/ )
      2. Kannada - Self Made - Text Content translated from English
      3. Telugu - Self Made- Text Content translated from English
      4. Hindi - Self Made- Text Content translated from English
    2. Page 2
      1. English - Self Made - Text Contents (https://shaylaraquel.com/blog/charlieandthechocolatefactory , https://www.kirkusreviews.com , https://toppsta.com. )
      2. Kannada - Self Made- Text Content translated from English
      3. Telugu - Self Made- Text Content translated from English
      4. Hindi - Self Made- Text Content translated from English
  21. Title (Regional)
    1. Telugu - Self Made
    2. Hindi - Self Made
    3. Kannada - Self Made
  22. Description panes
    1. English - Self Made
    2. Kannada - Self Made
    3. Telugu - Self Made
    4. Hindi - Self Made
  23. Font Used - Willy wonka font (https://www.1001fonts.com/willywonka-font.html)

Sound source links

  1. Background Music (Pure Imagination - Orchestral Arrangement) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrKxxRFytio&t=45s
  2. Chocolates falling - Candy Wrapper sound effect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4aYofHVc5w
  3. Flowing river - Soundjay.com - https://www.soundjay.com/nature/sounds/river-1.mp3
  4. Video review 1 English - Self made
  5. Video review 2 English - Self made
  6. Video review Kannada - Self made
  7. Video review Telugu - Self made
  8. Video review Hindi - Self made
  9. Intro 1 (English) - Self made
  10. Intro 2 (Telugu) - Self made
  11. Intro 3 (Kannada) - Self made
  12. Intro 4 (Hindi) - Self made

Our thoughts on using AR to advertise books

The book cover designer is tasked with giving users an idea of the tone of the book and its premise. This is often hard to get right as the designer has only so much real estate to work with. Also, in an age in which users are used to researching for reviews before they buy anything, how do we convince the user that the book is worth their time.

Book trailers have recently started gaining traction as they provide designers an audio-visual medium to work with. They solve some of these problems, but there is a disconnect between the physical copy of the book in a bookstore and its digital trailer. Of course, the user can always take out their phone and research the book, but often this additional friction is enough to make users lose interest in the book.

AR technology can solve all these problems and make it easier for authors to sell their books and gives them a toolset they can use to market it better. For starters, the digital trailer can be played on the AR platform and the trailer can be superimposed on the book. Now, since we have a 3D playground to project the trailer on, we will be able to make the trailers even more interactive and immersive. It is much easier to attract children to a book, using audio-visual cues than with the typical book cover. The trailer would be an amazing way to sell them on the adventure or fun in the book.

The info section is the second half of the solution. We would be able to bring up the most current reviews and load them from any platform we choose. We can also bring in social media reviews. “Your friend xyz recommends this book”, is a much better pitch than reviews from other media. Since the content is digital, we can iterate faster and try multiple “trailers” and stick with the one that works best for the book sales. We would be able to change how the book is marketed with the click of a button. We would be essentially replicating all the marketing tactics honed over the years by ecommerce companies and bringing them to a physical store.

What information the author chooses to convey on their book would be entirely based on what kind of book they are trying to sell. If it’s a comic book, we could have a “previously on..” section. We can also have a “similar books” section. Our only concern is that it is easy to go overboard and add too much information and media to the augmentation to sell it, which would irritate the user more than interest them. But as long as it the technology is used wisely, it would be a huge improvement in how we market books.