A novel interactive way to relate children’s stories has been developed by researchers in Singapore. The Magic Story Cube uses augmented reality technology, in which computer graphics are superimposed on the real world, to overlay an animated version of a story on top of a child’s traditional “magic cube.”

To watch the story unfold, the user wears a virtual reality headset with a small camera attached to the front. Both the camera and headset are plugged into a computer running software that recognizes numbers printed on different cubes.

When the user unfolds the cube to reveal a particular numbered square, the computer uses this as its cue to run a segment of audio and animated three-dimensional video, which tells part of the Noah’s ark story.