Google has introduced a new experiment, a 3D online bookshelf. The innovation that features more than 10,000 titles from Google Books can be overviewed on a Chrome experiments web site. 

Photo: www.chromeexperiments.com

Looking like a real huge bookshelf this virtual one showcases thousands of titles available online. It holds 3D models of the books organized into 28 subjects. To choose a subject, users have to click the subject button. The camera then flies to that subject for user to click on a book and thus pull it off the shelf. After clicking on the high-res image of the cover, the book will open to a page with title and author information as well as a short synopsis, provided by the Google Books API.

“All of the visuals are rendered with WebGL, a technology in Google Chrome and other modern browsers that enables fast, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics right in the browser, without the need for a plug-in,” explained Aaron Koblin, Data Arts Team and Bill Schilit, Research in a post on Google’s blog.

The app requires a browser that supports WebGL (Chrome, Firefox) and a computer with a compatible powerful graphics card so not all, even new machines support the app.

After users find desirable books, they can buy it by clicking the ‘Get this book’ button, which will take them to that book’s page on books.google.com. The title can also be opened on a tablet or smartphone via QR code that’s in the bottom left corner of the page. Free books are also available.

Other Google experiments that the technology company has been launching recently include an HTML5 video clip and the dance troupe and choreographers Pilobolus dance project.