Tangible Play, a new start-up company, has come up with a rather interesting and innovative application which is known as Osmo. Osmo works in a way quite unlike any other that most people would have seen before, where it is said to stimulate not only the kids, but also parents to boot, now how about that? It makes perfect sense though, considering how kids these days take to portable and digital devices like a duck to water. Go to any restaurant where families are out for dinner, and you will see toddlers and small children being engrossed by a tablet. Are the days of actual, physical toys a thing of the past?
Tangible Play intends to bridge the disconnect from the virtual world and the real world by coming up with three different game sets which will work with corresponding apps for the iPad. There is the Newton game which is a drawing app, Words that works like Scrabble, and Tangram – which is self-explanatory as it functions like any other old fashioned Tangram game.
These games will be accompanied by physical toys in a range of colors which in turn are connected to the application on the iPad in real time. The moment the companion app is downloaded to complement the games, a tiny mirror-like device is clipped onto the iPad’s camera, allowing it to reflect the surface where the game is being played on at a 90-degrees angle. This camera will be able to depict the full motions on its own display, while reflecting the player’s own movements as well. Right now, the Osmo app as it is called, is being crowdfunded, with sets being available for pre-order at $49 a pop. Expect Osmo to play nice with the iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Mini and iPad Mini Retina.
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