The Big Issue magazine has launched “augmented reality” technology to bring their vendors’ stories to life.

The innovative new approach, which launches today, includes augmented reality (AR) interactions throughout the publication. Readers can download an app onto their mobile phones, scan it over AR icons in the magazine and watch traditional print articles come to life in video or audio.

Included within the new issue of the magazine is an extract of Cressida Cowell's magical adventure The Wizard Of Once, which if you scan with your phone will download a recording of David Tennant reading it.

About The Wizards Of Once
Once there was magic, and the magic lived in the dark forests. Until the warriors came....
This is the story of a young boy wizard and a young girl warrior who have been taught since birth to hate each other like poison and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide.
Xar is a wizard boy who has no magic and will do anything to get it. Wish is a warrior girl, but she owns a banned magical object, and she will do anything to conceal it.
In this whirlwind adventure, Xar and Wish must forget their differences if they're going to make it to the dungeons at Warrior Fort - where something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring....



The award-winning magazine The Big Issue was founded in 1991 as a social business with the aim of helping rough sleepers to earn an income by becoming street vendors. The magazine has now expanded to four continents and vendors are individuals experiencing a range of social problems associated with poverty and marginalisation including, but not exclusively, homelessness. In the UK there are around 1500 vendors, each acting as a micro-entrepreneur, selling the magazine to over 350,000 customers. For this reason it is important that each customer buys the magazine from a registered vendor and makes sure that they take their copy, supporting the mission to dismantle poverty through self-help and the promotion of sustainable social enterprise.

Look out for The Big Issue magazine, on sale from your local vendor every week.
If you are unable to find a vendor or live overseas you can buy a copy here