[HN Gopher] Show HN: I built an animated 3D bookshelf for ebooks
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       Show HN: I built an animated 3D bookshelf for ebooks
        
       Author : mawise
       Score  : 126 points
       Date   : 2024-08-12 17:53 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | randomcatuser wrote:
       | This is awesome!
       | 
       | If we want to extend this to be a whole virtual library, are
       | there datasets that people know about for book covers?
       | 
       | One thing that would be cool is book _spine_ datasets!
        
         | mawise wrote:
         | Most ebooks have embedded cover images that Calibre will
         | automatically extract. I know of https://isbndb.com/ which has
         | covers of some resolution but I've never tried using them
         | before.
        
         | vessenes wrote:
         | Good q! Check my other comment here about spine images.
        
         | cdrini wrote:
         | Open library has covers/metadata; alas no spines! I built an
         | interface similar to this for Open Library using library
         | classifications for sorting: https://openlibrary.org/explore
        
       | 101008 wrote:
       | Very nice. I can imagine a publisher website using something like
       | this to promote their books.
        
         | cinntaile wrote:
         | Some already do.
         | 
         | https://press.stripe.com/
        
           | Dragonai wrote:
           | This is too cool. Thanks for sharing.
        
       | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
       | How are the books sorted?
        
         | mawise wrote:
         | Right now books are sorted by author name (eek, I think first
         | name--calibre has an author_sort field I should use), then
         | series name, then series index.
        
       | quirino wrote:
       | Very cool!
       | 
       | I've wanted to build something similar to this for music. Some
       | virtual environment where you can organize your albums on shelves
       | and play them on a turntable.
       | 
       | You could even extend this so you have to walk to a store to buy
       | new albums etc.
        
         | vunderba wrote:
         | I can't remember the name, unfortunately, but a year ago, I saw
         | a oculus quest VR environment which re-created a standard 90s
         | era bedroom. The user could then add a text file containing a
         | bunch of YouTube URLs and all the associated YouTube videos got
         | represented as physical VHS tapes that you had to put into the
         | actual VCR in order to play them on the TV in the room.
        
       | chrisco255 wrote:
       | Is there a live demo or do we have to clone it to see it?
        
         | mhandley wrote:
         | If it doesn't show for you in the README (it didn't for me at
         | first), just click on demo.gif
        
       | chadhutchins10 wrote:
       | Brandon Sanderson ftw!
        
       | cyanmagenta wrote:
       | Looks great! One thing to consider would be adding some more
       | specular lighting. Books in real life are shiny, and the render
       | looks a bit flat.
        
       | vessenes wrote:
       | Nice! Many, many years ago, when Shelfie was shutting down, I was
       | imagining we might want VR bookshelves one day, and I convinced
       | Brewster to store Sheflie's spine and cover images over at the
       | archive. Might be worth reaching out to see if they still have
       | them. Spine images are a little hard to get; they're not part of
       | the Amazon API, for instance.
        
       | westurner wrote:
       | Digital Bookshelf screensavers for streaming boxes would be cool.
        
       | Jemaclus wrote:
       | I read almost exclusively on Kindle, and one of the downsides of
       | an e-book library is that it's not really browsable by your
       | friends and family when they come over. I've long envisioned a
       | movie poster-sized touch screen that shows my library almost
       | exactly like this, so people can touch it, scroll through my
       | library, and interact with books (ie, animate it sliding out and
       | displaying the cover + description). When it's not interacted
       | with, it just looks like a painting on the wall.
       | 
       | I have zero idea how to pull this off, but I'd love to do it, and
       | this visualization of the shelf is exactly what I had in mind!
       | 
       | Amazing job. I'm very impressed!
        
       | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
       | I've wanted something like this so that I can have a custom
       | bookshelf behind me in teams calls. I was tempted to make one but
       | had no clue where to find book spine artwork.
        
       | zzimbler wrote:
       | Super cool - reminds me of the Stripe press website
       | https://press.stripe.com/
        
       | dheera wrote:
       | Reminds me of Microsoft Bob
        
       | cdrini wrote:
       | Very cool! I love the animation. I worked on a similar interface
       | inspired a while back for Open Library:
       | https://openlibrary.org/explore . You have to go to "Settings >
       | Book style > 3d-spine" to enable the effect
        
       | pelcg wrote:
       | Not a bookshelf, but it reminds me of something that Stripe did
       | something similar here which is equally as cool.
       | 
       | https://press.stripe.com/
        
       | foobarbecue wrote:
       | Great. Back when quirky.com was a product idea site, I proposed a
       | piece of furniture that would be a bookshelf for ebooks (large
       | e-ink screen cabinet).
        
       | macshome wrote:
       | I miss all the cool animations and loving touches like this in
       | Apple's iBooks.
        
       | bufferoverflow wrote:
       | Looks: nice
       | 
       | Usability: useless
        
       | hi_hi wrote:
       | I do not own many leather-bound books, nor does my apartment
       | smell of rich mahogony, but this gave me a wonderful idea for
       | visualising what my many ebooks might look like through an AR or
       | VR virtual library experience.
        
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       (page generated 2024-08-12 23:00 UTC)