Study Table is an interactive table able to augment physical books

Study Table augmented physical books placed on its surface with music and digital animation, presentation of multimedia related to the content of the book, real-time search from popular search engines and videos repositories, as well as note-taking through handwriting. The provided digital content is displayed either within or laterally to the open books, while users interact with the system using infrared light markers. As soon as the user starts browsing the book pages, the lights automatically turn off and the interaction with the physical book begins. When the user points the infrared pen at any random region on the page, the interactive areas are highlighted to inform him / her about their location. Through an interactive area, the user can discover relevant multimedia such as (i) videos, (ii) photos and (iii) music.

In particular, if the user points at an image that corresponds to a photo slideshow, a new window appears next to the physical book with that content. This window can be repositioned on demand by pointing and dragging its top-right corner, while the user can start the slideshow by pointing once again at the designated area. On the contrary, if the user selects an interactive area that holds auditory data like music, then playback starts immediately and various cues like floating notes are displayed to provide visual feedback. The user can stop the multimedia features performing a left to right gesture with the infrared pen. Finally, similarly to the photo slideshow, the user can watch relevant videos either locally stored or coming directly from the web (like YouTube). When the study process completes, the user can turn the lights back on by simply drawing a virtual circle on the air.