"Sensory fiction": Books that let you feel what the characters do

By combining networked sensors and actuators, the wearable can change lighting, sound, temperature, chest tightness and even heart rate of the reader to match what the main character in the book is going through.

“Changes in the protagonist’s emotional or physical state [trigger] discrete feedback in the wearable, whether by changing the heartbeat rate, creating constriction through air pressure bags, or causing localized temperature fluctuations,” the designers explain.

The engineers tested out their device with The Girl Who Was Plugged In, by James Tiptree. In the story, the protagonist swings from deep love to ultimate despair and experiences both Barcelona sunshine and the captivity of a dark damp cellar.