Globally, the popularity of technologies like augmented reality (AR), is increasing as more publishers use them to engage young readers.

Many believe that this increased interaction and engagement can translate into better reading habits. 

This inspired a group of three, led by Confident Niyizibyose, managing director and tech lead of Augmented Future, an initiative that seeks, to among others, develop augmented-reality solutions in Rwanda.

According to Niyizibyose, his team uses augmented and virtual reality combined with 2D/3D animations to enable Rwandan content developers and their audience to unlock interactivity and additional value from existing and new books.

Confident Niyizibyose is the tech leader of Augmented Future.

On January 6, the tech enthusiasts partnered with Imagine We Rwanda to digitize one of the local best-selling book: The ABCs of Rwanda.

The group pointed out that in every book there is a flyer explaining how to download and use the app since it’s the first time Rwandans are experiencing it.

"Augmented Reality promotes reading because it uses multimodal learning, meaning we are using more than one sense in the brain to learn,” they said. 

Adding, "It’s not about what the technology can achieve, rather, it is about the way it is leveraged in the book so it enriches the young reader’s experience in ways that a normal book couldn’t.” 

According to Niyizibyose, augmented reality can make reading more fun, especially for children and young readers. 

"It addresses specific pain points perceived by those young readers, who enjoy books differently and want to get involved, not just from a reading perspective. That’s where this technology can provide additional depth and richness to make reading more fun, interesting.”

Ambitions

The fact that the technology is not as common in Rwanda, Niyibizi said that more efforts will be put in raising awareness. 

"We have two tasks; one of educating people first about augmented reality and then how our solutions works.”

Currently, he asserted, they are developing their own products that provide a full school environment at home powered by augmented reality.

However, he added, "We look forward to working with art galleries and museums to add augmented reality over their artwork." We also intend to work with music rebels to power their content distribution with augmented reality.”