Not just child’s play…Tangible Kids and Osmo, the breakout kids hardware tech device that was named one of the best inventions of 2014 by Time Magazine, announced its next experience, Masterpiece. With this launch, the company again seeks to revolutionize the way we learn and think about the most fundamental form of art, drawing.In 2014 Osmo quickly surpassed its first pre-tail goal of raising $50,000 in just six and a half hours; crowdfunding backers quickly generated over $2 million for the slick device. Osmo shared that during October 2015 that it had closed a Series A funding round for $12 million led by Accel Partners. Additional investors included Upfront Ventures and K9 Ventures. Accel Partners’ Rich Wong joined the company’s board of directors.
How Masterpiece works:
With Masterpiece, users snap a picture of anything or anyone and use Osmo’s award winning Reflective AI technology to help guide them as they draw line-by-line to recreate the image. A major evolutionary upgrade to the long history of drawing tools, such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s grid method, Masterpiece assists users to draw better, helping recreate what the subject, nurturing spatial intelligence and building confidence. Once users finished their drawings, they can be framed, stuck on the fridge or saved digitally to share with friends and family.
“The first form of human expression was drawing — we drew pictures before words. Drawing is an essential skill that we use every day throughout our entire lives, from the scribbles that make our parents smile to the blueprints that define our world,” said Pramod Sharma, CEO and Co-founder of Osmo. “Picasso once said: ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ With Osmo we want to provide kids with tools to let them express their creativity and build confidence that scales with their aspirations.”
Masterpiece features include:
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Infinite Library – Images can be captured via camera or pulled from an internet search, making Masterpiece a modern drawing (or coloring) book with infinite number of pages!
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AutoLine and AutoShade – Osmo’s Reflective AI automatically analyzes the digital image to suggest best lines and shades to draw.
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Composition – Artists can rotate, zoom and move the digital template to fit their imaginations on paper. Masterpiece also allows combinations of multiple objects from real life or online images to make completely new compositions. -
Video Capture – Masterpiece makes an amazing time-lapse video of each drawing that is a fun and unique movie to share with friends and family!
Masterpiece works for all ages. A child can draw her favorite character, a teenager can draw a comic strip, and parents can draw their kids playing. Masterpiece works on any surface and with several types of drawing instruments. Pens on newsprint make a great coloring book, crayons on construction paper make unique and original birthday cards, and charcoal on bristol board make a piece of fine art, according to Osmo.
Having already sold 100K units, Osmo noted its currently use in over 2000 public and private schools around the world, fostering creative thinking and social intelligence in the classroom. With Masterpiece, the company seeks to revolutionize the process of drawing by using digital technology to assist in physical space. The experience highlights the importance of supporting art and creativity in the classroom in an era that too often prioritizes standardized testing rather than giving children the time and skills to express themselves creatively in the classroom.Started in 2013 by Stanford engineering grads Pramod Sharma and Jerome Scholler, whose previous work included experience was at Ubisoft, LucasArts and Google, including the Google Books Project, Osmo is a kids tech company built around its proprietary Reflective Artificial Intelligence, aiming to create a new play movement to unleash the boundaries of the screen. Anyone who has already purchased Osmo may download Masterpiece for free here. Osmo is currently sold online and in select international Apple stores.
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