If you've ever used the color dropper tool in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop or any other graphics package, you'll know how you can take a specific colour from another image and use it to paint or flood fill or create text with that exact colour. Well with the I/O Brush, you can do the same thing in real life.
You take the I/O (input/output) Brush, touch it to a surface and then 'paint' onto a touch screen and the brush paints the colour you just 'lifted'. Any surface; be it a table, a wall, a piece of fruit, someone's clothing, someone's hair, someone's skin...just like the way a fountain pen 'lifts' ink from the ink well (input) and then releases it onto the paper (output), the I/O Brush lifts an image from whatever you touch with the brush and releases it onto the screen. So not only do you get colour, but you get texture.
The brush contains a small camera which takes a digital picture of the surface being touched and then releases it onto the screen when the user 'paints' with the brush. It doesn't just have to be an image, though, it can be video. You can use the brush to capture a moving image and then paint that back onto the screen.
The aim of the device is to help teach children about colour in the world around them. When kids make pictures on the computer, they're limited to the colours in the pallet and the images in clipart. The I/O Brush lets them use the colour they see around them, and as such gives them a greater understanding and appreciation for the nature of colour. It helps them realise that colour is not just artificial.
The I/O Brush
Check out the video at the bottom of the page.
You take the I/O (input/output) Brush, touch it to a surface and then 'paint' onto a touch screen and the brush paints the colour you just 'lifted'. Any surface; be it a table, a wall, a piece of fruit, someone's clothing, someone's hair, someone's skin...just like the way a fountain pen 'lifts' ink from the ink well (input) and then releases it onto the paper (output), the I/O Brush lifts an image from whatever you touch with the brush and releases it onto the screen. So not only do you get colour, but you get texture.
The brush contains a small camera which takes a digital picture of the surface being touched and then releases it onto the screen when the user 'paints' with the brush. It doesn't just have to be an image, though, it can be video. You can use the brush to capture a moving image and then paint that back onto the screen.
The aim of the device is to help teach children about colour in the world around them. When kids make pictures on the computer, they're limited to the colours in the pallet and the images in clipart. The I/O Brush lets them use the colour they see around them, and as such gives them a greater understanding and appreciation for the nature of colour. It helps them realise that colour is not just artificial.
The I/O Brush
Check out the video at the bottom of the page.
