Well you need imagine no longer, for Post Doctoral Research Fellow David Miller is poised to let readers to do exactly that, by using ‘Augmented Reality’ (AR), for a project setup by RIMAP, called 'Sherwood Rise'.

When you wave your phone above an image of the fictional newspaper ‘The Truth’, you’re led into a new digital world; a cartoon flashes up on your screen and rises three dimensionally above the article.

You can interact with the augmented material, and in doing so affect the next issue of the newspaper, which is emailed for you to print out. The story takes place over four days.

Mr Miller, who has a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, said his ambition when starting the project this time last year, was to use AR to “explore new forms of storytelling, to expand the traditional printed story and possible futures of the book”.

Mr Miller said: “Sherwood Rise is a kind of game, with a modern take on the Robin Hood story - centred around a ‘terrorist group’ who are trying to hack into newspapers to contest the content and replace the official news with their own version.

“We wanted a story that would work across cultures, and were keen to engage with the subject of the financial crisis.

“But in terms of AR in general I believe it is poised to take digital media by storm, and will have far-reaching effects on our lives.

“The technology is now there: you can hover your mobile over a news page and up will appear a vast array of ‘transmedia’ opportunities from text, graphics, animations, video, sound, live internet data, etc.”

Sherwood Rise is part of the International UNESCO project 'Crossing Media Boundaries: Adaptations and New Media Forms of the Book'.

Scriptwriter for the project is Dave Moorhead with Music Technology students Jan Sedlacek, Rihards Ozols, Pavel Lyskovec, Aleksandrs Nikitins composing the sound and music.

Visit http://augmentedwonder.blogspot.co.uk for more information or follow @augmentedbook on Twitter.