Canterbury spin out company app downloaded 450,000 times

Canterbury spin out company app has been downloaded 450,000 times world-wide

May 25, 2014

A University of Canterbury spin out company Puteko, whose children’s augmented reality colouring-in app has been downloaded 450,000 times world-wide, is about to release a new page package about New Zealand animals.

The new edition of the magic book will introduce a range of native New Zealand animals and is targeted at primary and intermediate aged children, one of the designers University of Canterbury’s Dr Adrian Clark says.

``This new page pack is just the first step in a larger plan of producing new educational material for schools in New Zealand and worldwide.

``Puteko’s research and development division is based in Christchurch, with a strong ongoing connection to the HIT Lab NZ at the University of Canterbury. As part of our research, Puteko plans to provide postgraduate scholarships to students who will conduct world leading research in new technologies and further improve New Zealand's standing as a world leader in augmented reality research.

``Our app is called colAR which provides technology that brings children’s colouring to life using the power of Augmented Reality. Users print out the specially designed pages on their printer and colour them in.

``They then run the colAR Mix application on their Apple or Android phone or tablet. When they point their device at the page they’ve coloured, the colouring page pictures pop out of the page in animated 3D, using the user’s own colours and textures,’’ Dr Clark says.

The colAR technology was developed at the Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab NZ), at the University in 2011 by Dr Clark and Andreas Duenser.

After the technology won awards at international research conferences, they decided with the help of another researcher, Katy Kelly, to create a commercial product based on the technology.

The colAR Mix app has gone viral and the Puteko Ltd team is primarily based in Japan, near the product’s largest consumer base. The Japanese team is handling the production line, working with customers and improving the app.

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