Called Giant Jimmy Jones, the book is by New Zealand children's writer and illustrator Gavin Bishop. His work is complemented by a Christchurch-designed system called eyeMagic. Readers wear equipment over their heads which allows the illustrations in Mr Bishop's book to appear to rise off the page as three dimensional objects.

The eyeMagic system has been developed at the Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab) at the University of Canterbury. The original HIT Lab is based at the University of Washington in Seattle, a sister city of Christchurch. The City Council and its economic development arm Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC) helped persuade the HIT Lab people to open a research centre in Christchurch. It has been operating now for more than a year, with some assistance from the CDC, doing research into the way people could more easily and profitably make use of computer power.

This month's book launch is a world first for the eyeMagic technology. Justine Lester, Community Librarian, says hosting the eyeMagic launch fits well with the new library. The modern, environmentally friendly building is also home to the South Learning Centre, which provides technology based learning for local school children.

"We're looking forward to trying something new and giving people in Christchurch the world first opportunity to use the eyeMagic," she says. HIT Lab New Zealand director Dr Mark Billinghurst says eyeMagic could be used to advantage in fields like education, architecture and entertainment. "The work will serve as the focus for an education programme that will be used to teach children about three-dimensional modelling and spatial concepts," he says.

For information about Christchurch City Libraries, look online at http://library.christchurch.org.nz/