Pramod Sharma continues to dazzle with his products.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Osmo, the iPad accessory developed by Indian American Pramod Sharma, that translates real-world objects and motions into onscreen gameplay, has a new arrow in its already eclectic quiver of tricks. Its new Masterpiece app utilizes Osmo’s clip on-mirror and the iPad’s front-facing camera to help children draw practically anything.
The process is one that requires nothing other than an Osmo, iPad, piece of paper, pen or pencil, and a modicum of coordination.
Using Masterpiece, children can either take a photo or searching for one within the app, which features Google Safe Search. The user wouldn’t be limited to one or the other either, the app allows superimposing photos with downloaded media.
Once an image source is chosen, the tablet’s screen will display a detailed outline of the material fed into the app and a live, augmented video feed of the paper in front of it, allowing children to “trace” the subject by watching the screen while physically drawing on the paper.
“It’s a different category for us altogether. This is going to be a new medium, Sharma said in an interview with GamesBeat. “We don’t know what is possible. It’s such an open space, a digital interactive medium.”
He told Wired that the app was originally conceived as an “endless coloring book,” and additional features tossed in and honed from there. In addition to drawing and coloring, kids can also practice their cursive on digitized handwriting “paper.”
Sharma also disclosed Masterpiece is the first Osmo experience that isn’t exclusively geared toward kids. Children will still be a primary target, but it might also grant some adults the courage to start drawing again.
“[Masterpiece] is not about teaching to draw, it’s more about building confidence,” he divulged to Wired.
Osmo, which was named one of 2014’s best inventions by Time, has raised a total of $14.5 million to date and is currently in use at more than 2,000 schools.