From Offspring:
Last night, I read my daughter a story before bed, like I always do. I picked an old favorite from her bookshelf—Giraffes Can’t Dance. But this time, a musical cast accompanied my narration.
“The warthogs started waltzing …” I read. Just then, a romantic melody started playing.
I continued. “And the rhinos rock ‘n’ rolled …” Suddenly, there was an interlude by an electric guitar.
The lions danced a tango that was elegant and bold.” Right on cue, a dramatic tango tune cut in.
Okay, so there were no actual musicians in my kid’s bedroom—that would have been weird as we were sitting in our pajamas. But it felt like they were there, thanks to a free iOS app called Novel Effect.
. . . .
As you read a children’s book aloud, your iPhone, iPad or connected speakers play custom music and sound effects to enhance the story. The system uses voice recognition technology to drop in the sounds at the perfect moment, so you can go at your own pace. There’s a well-timed “ba-dum-bump-chhhh” in The Book with No Pictures, the hum of machine engines in Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site, and lively underwater effects in The Pout-Pout Fish. There are even some voice cameos by certain characters—in Where the Wild Things Are, Max appears with his famed line “I’ll eat you up.”
Novel Effect works with more than 200 different books, from classics to recent bestsellers. There are some titles that come with the app, but for most of the selections, you must already have a copy of the book, whether print or digital. (There’s also an option to open a book in iBooks directly in the app.) Once you tap “Read book,” you can just set your device aside and start reading.
. . . .
Novel Effect is currently creating media designed to be used with Alexa, which makes a lot of sense. It’d be nice to not need my phone at all to use the technology.
Link to the rest at Offspring
I heard a demo of this at a library conference yesterday. It’s a thing. The sample I heard sounded good, because the sounds were well done, not because the technology was a magic bullet. It appeared to use Alexa-like technology to trigger sound effects when certain phrases were read.
Kids like lots of things, and parents reading to them is one of the best. Gimmicks have their day and disappear.
This is for parents who have a deep inner conviction that books are boring. Besides, it’s not possible to read and listen to music simultaneously.
Ah, distractions while trying to read – whatever will they think of next. (besides, I remember my brother’s kids getting more of a kick out of his sound effects …)