Remember the hours you spent as a child coloring in your favorite coloring books of animals or cartoon characters? Well, now there is an app for that. Of course.
Dubai-based startup Pixelbug just launched the Colorbug app, combining the traditional childhood pastime of coloring predrawn images with modern technology. Users of the app are given a range of images to choose from, featuring characters such as Patrick the Horse, Pablo the Penguin, Ricky the Rabbit, and Bugsy. After printing and coloring an image, the app's camera can be used to photograph the pictures. This launches an animated educational story about the image, keeping the colors chosen by the young – or old – artist. Users can literally see their drawings come to life.
As of Friday, the app is available via Apple's App Store and will soon be available on Google Play as well. The app can be used in both English and Arabic.
Pixelbug founders Elie Youssef, Dany Eid, and Denis Krueger told Wamda that the unique thing about their app is the way it utilizes augmented reality.“We developed Pattern Recognition Technology very quickly,” Krueger explained. They also emphasized that the entire app was developed in-house by the Pixelbug team.
Currently the app has eight characters, or stencils, as they refer to the coloring pages. Five more are in-development and the platform will also have sponsored stencils, which essentially will be advertisement coloring pages that app users will be able to access.
"We collaborate with various companies and brands for which we develop stencils addressed to a specific target audience. The copyrights of these stencils are owned by those companies; however, they can only be accessed through our platform," Eid told Wamda. Additionally, different stencils will be available for purchase by users via an online store.
The target audience might be more geared toward children, but to be honest, we are planning to download this app and spend our weekend reliving our childhoods. Please excuse us while we color.