Lost My Name, a publishing and technology start up that is revolutionizing story-driven personalized entertainment for kids, has launched a new children’s book called “The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home”. This story tells the tale of a child and their robot friend who are on an amazing adventure from the depths of outer space to their own front door.
The really unique feature of this book is that when you go to order it you provide some details around who the book is for, such as their first name, gender and address. Using this information, a tailored book is created for the reader. The experience is different for every child as aspects of the storyline and imagery are personalized based upon where they actually live; from the country flag on the spaceship and the view of Earth from outer space, to seeing familiar pictures of key country, city and town locations as the adventure gets closer to its conclusion where the child returns to their actual home address.
The Bing Maps team has been working with Lost My Name over the past year to help them realize their vision. The Lost My Name team uses Bing Maps to accomplish three key tasks;
- Take the child’s address and geocode it using the Bing Maps REST Location API.
- Use the Bing Maps JavaScript control to provide an interactive map where the user can fine tune the geocoded location so that it is centered directly over the child’s house.
Screenshot: Interactive map for fine tuning location.
3. Make use of the Bing Maps REST Imagery service to retrieve rich aerial image of the child’s house and surrounding area which is then used to create a truly personal page in the book.
Screenshot: Preview of a page from the book of the child’s house.
The Lost My Team has also put together the following video to show you some of the tech behind this book.
Video: The tech behind the book.
As cool as this book is, the Lost My Name team really out did themselves when they partnered with the nonprofit organization, Story Time from Space. In September they had a contest where one lucky winner would have their version of the book sent up into space and read by an astronaut later this year.
Find out more about this wonderful book at https://www.lostmy.name/books/thejourneyhome
– The Bing Maps Team
