Osmo's Masterpiece app could help unleash your inner artist
PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) -- The Bay Area is home to a lot of entrepreneurs. But making the leap from an idea to a company can be a big challenge. One local success story involves a product that could have your kids creating the next Mona Lisa in no time.
No one ever wants to Google themselves. So it's a good thing someone did it for me and emailed me this peculiar video.
Taking a photo off the Internet, they traced every line and wrinkle using a gadget I'd seen once before. At the time, it was being used to play games at the 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt Conference, along Startup Alley. Though it's widely said that 9 out of 10 startups fail. This one defied the odds.
"I think it was very hard to imagine what the future would look like," ," said Osmo CEO Pramod Sharma.
The founders never guessed they'd ship a retail product now sold in Apple stores worldwide. Now known as Osmo, the kit comes with three games that are all based on one little accessory.
"We repurpose the front facing camera of the iPad here by putting a mirror in front of it," Osmo Chief Technology Officer Jerome Scholler. "As soon as I put that mirror, actually the camera is looking at the table."
There are games for one and two players. And now, a totally new app that explains that mysterious email.
Take a photo and the app automatically turns it into an outline, then projects it as a guide so you can draw your own version with real ink on real paper.
The goal is help kids learn a skill that can sometimes be intimidating.
"People get scared of drawing," Sharma said. "Our hope is once you do it enough times, you'll build your confidence."
Osmo's latest app is different from the others because it's not a game. It encourages kids to experiment and play around the way they want to. And by the way, the photo isn't the only souvenir they'll create out of it.
"People are very interested in looking at the process you followed to draw something," Sharma said.
So Osmo lets you record timelapse videos and send them to anyone.
"Parents and grandparents, they get very emotional when they see a child actually drawing," Sharma said.
Of course, the priceless original can take that coveted spot on the refrigerator. A true masterpiece. And that's what the new app is called -- Masterpiece.
"If kids feel a lot more confident and proud of their work, I think that's our dream," Sharma said.
