Founders:
- Effi Wizen, Co-Founder & CCO
- DANA PORTER RUBINSHTEIN, Co-Founder & CMO
- Benny Arbel, Co-Founder & CEO
Bookful is a magical, playful universe for book lovers that uses augmented reality to bring books to life. The app merges the digital and the physical worlds to create an interactive reading experience that instills in children a passion for books. It is an incredibly powerful reading tool that helps children better understand book content and even provides information that extends beyond the pages of the book. It engages visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners alike by enhancing a book’s interactivity and generating additional stimuli.
Bookful is brought to you by Inception, a leading next-generation immersive (VR/AR) content network, combining unique proprietary technology, a best-in-class creative studio, and a cross-platform destination app. Inception has received a strategic investment from RTL Group and is the VR/AR arm of the Group.
Inception launched in October 2016, and has VR apps for Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear, iOS, Android, Google Daydream, HTC Vive, and Microsoft MR, with Sony PS coming soon. It has over 1 million downloads and a vibrant community of active daily users.
Founder Bio
Benny Arbel
- Serial tech entrepreneur
- Digital marketing expert
- Former CEO of MyThings & Comverse mobile content division
I really enjoy this app because it’s so interactive and kids get so excited and interested in the book when they read it through the Bookful APP. You can flip through the pages and objects on the page pops up in 3D or AR mode. The description of the Bookful app above is from their official website: https://bookful.app/
Bookful by Benny Arbel took a novel approach to upgrade storytime. Being an avid reader, I am intrigued to use augmented reality technology in books. He founded Inception which is a virtual reality company that brings VR content to its’ customers.
I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66O8Q-Mpb-s
I’m so torn with this approach. I’ve always been an avid reader, and for me reading is taking the words and creating the images and the characters in my mind. it’s also the ability to just sit quietly and just absorb and get lost in the book. Bringing AR into books feels as though you are taking away your imagination and watching someone elses take on the book. I really hesitate to say that it instills a passion for reading. At the same time, I am also aware that we now understand that there are many individuals who find the idea of reading pages of texts completely daunting and there are many individuals who are visual or audio learners, as a result, I am sure AR in books would definitely benefit them.
Unfortunately, I am still not convinced that watching your favourite book in AR is better than picking up it up, reading the words, visualizing the characters and using your own imagination.
I understand what you mean, reading physical books is great because you can let your imagination run wild, and this is very important skill for children to practice. If they are always watching videos, their mind stops being so creative. Bookful I think is pretty good because it doesn’t actually create animations of the story, it just makes the characters pop out and do simple moves so there’s still lots of room for conversation with the kids. For example, I read one about dinosaurs with my daughter, and on each page there was a different dinosaur walking on the page, and while it did that, my daughter asked me lots of questions about the dinosaur, and the AR made her even more curious about it. At times it can be glitchy, but I think it’s just a process for AR technology to continue to improve.
I agree with you that nothing is better than physical books! There’s something about touching a book that is just so magical haha 🙂 But I do very much believe in allowing kids to explore the different kinds of ways that they can read, after all, they are growing up in a totally different environment that what we are used to!
Bookful seems to be an engaging and impressive venture. From what I can gather, Benny Arbel seems to exhibit some good traits for would-be entrepreneurs to think about. For starters, he is a serial entrepreneur which means that he is always innovating and coming up with new ideas. I am not sure how many of his ventures have been a force of disruption, but the fact that he has started several ventures is an admiral trait to have. It also seems as though Benny might be a good example to look to when thinking about exit-strategies. It does not look like he gets too incredibly attached to his ventures and knows when to move on to create more original worth in the world – he may be one who creates the wave, not one who rides it. This is the type of model many should look to when becoming entrepreneurs.