Online retailer Amazon has gained a patent filing which will allow us to enjoy ‘DVD style’ extras in our favourite books through the Kindle e-reader range.
Thanks to the newly recognised patent #8478662 (or “Customized Electronic Book with Supplemental Content” to give it’s full title) fans of popular books such as George RR Martin’s epic Game of Thrones saga could potentially benefit from a bevy of visual bonuses such as world maps, family trees and artwork which will be embedded into the stories and accessible at the touch of a screen. Of course these possibilities are only in imagination at the moment.
To ensure quality these extra features will have been submitted by the publisher of the title or submitted by reputable and expert contributors to ensure all content is legit and officially recognised. This means it probably won’t include the recent addition of ‘fanfic’ to the Kindle market but could be used by educators as a resource within a textbook or classic literature.
Social media will also influence the available content and crossover media from TV and films relating to the book will likely be included. So for example if you enjoyed reading Max Brooks’ World War Z you might be able to link directly to a trailer for the movie version of the zombie apocalypse right there on your Kindle Fire HD.
We await more information about what the Amazon patent entails and which of the Kindle platforms it will touch down on.