E-book Reader: Emotional Soundtrack
밀리의 서재: The Living Page
Deaf Community × Visual Storytelling
My inspiration for this project came from a moment of personal frustration while using Millie's Library, Korea's leading e-book platform. I was reading a book and found myself struggling to fully visualize a particular scene, and it reminded me of the true magic of reading: our ability to create unique and deeply personal impressions from the very same text. My own drawing of a character would be completely different from anyone else's. This led me to a central question: could e-books go beyond simple text to become a creative canvas? I believe they can. By adding a unique form of visual stimulation, I aim to help all readers—especially those in the Deaf community—aid their imagination and make the experience truly their own. I chose to design this feature for Millie's Library, a platform I genuinely love, because it has already built a thriving community around the idea of "reading as an experience." I aim to show how its innovative culture can be used to create a truly inclusive and transformative reading experience for all.
Problem
For most of us, reading is a multisensory experience, even if we don't consciously realize it. The subtle rustle of a page, the distant sound of a passing car, or the quiet hum of a coffee shop adds a subconscious layer of reality to the story. For Deaf readers, this entire layer is absent. Their experience is limited to the words on the page—a flat, silent world. A love story with no sound of a heartbeat, a horror novel with no eerie creak of a floorboard, a poem about rain with no visual sense of a downpour. This lack of sensory feedback doesn't just make the experience less magical; it creates a feeling of exclusion, as if the full, vibrant world of the story is for everyone else but them.
Insight
Since sound cannot be a part of the experience, the screen itself must become the canvas for emotion and atmosphere. The key insight is to translate the sensory cues that hearing readers get from sound into a new, purely visual language. I can transform the static, two-dimensional e-book page into a dynamic, living environment that visually communicates the story's mood, setting, and emotional rhythm without a single sound.
Solution: The Two-Layered Reading Experience
I propose a new "Kinetic Reading Mode" that creates a unique two-layered experience for the reader: a personalized, aesthetic layer and a dynamic, story-driven layer. This entire system would be powered by Millie's Library's existing AI technology, aligning with its recent investments in AI to provide a truly intelligent and seamless experience.
Key Features
Layer 1: The Custom Theme Palette (User-Driven)
This is the foundation of the experience, giving the user full creative control.
Genre-Based Presets: The app will provide a curated library of themes optimized for specific genres. For a romance novel, a preset might use soft pastels with subtle sparkling effects. A fantasy theme might feature mystical blues and floating light motes.
The Customization Tool: Users can also go beyond presets to build their own unique theme from scratch. They can choose a base background color, select from a library of visual effects (rain, snow, embers, etc.), and fine-tune each element's intensity, speed, and opacity. This lets them design a "vibe" that matches their personal reading aesthetic.
Registration and Sharing: Once a user has crafted a theme, they can save and name it, such as "My Cozy Rainy Day Theme." They can then choose to share this theme with the wider community. Other users can discover, use, and "like" these shared themes. This feature complements Millie's Library's existing "My Library" and "Library Sharing" functions, fostering a more visual and expressive reader community.
Layer 2: The Kinetic Reading Mode (Story-Driven)
This is the dynamic component that adds a cinematic quality to the reading experience. This layer intelligently overrides or layers on top of the user's chosen theme, ensuring the story's emotional beats are always felt.
Environmental & Atmospheric Effects: The page itself becomes a window into the story's world. When the text describes rain, a subtle overlay of raindrops trickles down the screen. For a snowy scene, delicate snowflakes drift gently past the text, while a scene set on a lake might feature a gentle ripple effect across the page. For a misty or mysterious atmosphere, a faint fog or wisps of smoke can slowly rise from the bottom of the screen.
Emotional & Narrative Cues: The visual language of the page can reflect the inner world of the characters. The background color might subtly shift to a dark, blue-grey tone during moments of tension and anxiety, or to a warm, golden hue during happy scenes. For a passage describing a character’s panic or rage, the words might have a very slight, almost imperceptible tremor, or the font color could shift to a subtle, dark red. Similarly, dramatic flashes of light can simulate thunder and lightning.
Interactive & Detailed Elements: Tiny, magical details bring the story to life. When a character lights a candle, a soft, flickering glow appears around the text, while a paragraph about a starry night might be accompanied by tiny, twinkling stars across the page. In an old library, you might see tiny, sparkling dust motes dancing in the digital sunlight.
Haptic Storytelling
This feature delivers the emotions and atmosphere of the text through touch. Haptic feedback allows readers to physically feel the story's most important moments, maximizing immersion by adding a tactile layer to the visual effects.
Emotional Vibrations: When a character's emotions intensify (e.g., anger, fear, surprise), the device will produce a short, strong vibration, directly conveying the tension to the reader.
Environmental Vibrations: A visual effect of rain is paired with a weak, rhythmic vibration, giving the sensation of raindrops hitting the screen. This dual sensory input of sight and touch makes the story feel more real.
Rhythmic Vibrations: Fast-paced action scenes are matched with an irregular, dynamic vibration pattern, while calm scenes use a soft, gentle pattern, allowing readers to feel the story's rhythm.
Impact
If this project becomes a reality, I believe I could fundamentally change what it means to "read a book." E-readers today are just utilitarian tools for consuming text, but by adding visual and tactile storytelling, I can transform them into a fully immersive sensory experience.
For Deaf readers, this would be especially meaningful. The story would no longer be a "flat, silent" world; it would become a living, breathing environment where they can feel the shared atmosphere and emotions with their whole body. I believe this isn’t just about making content "available"; it's about achieving true inclusivity, where everyone gets to experience the magic of a story on equal terms.
Beyond that, this could take reading from a solitary act to something more collaborative. By allowing a community to share themes, discuss them, and reinterpret a single book from multiple perspectives, I can expand reading into a collaborative and artistic activity. I'm confident that this project would set a new standard for the entire e-book industry and give everyone the best possible reading experience.
