The team at Retro, a photo-sharing app for close friends and family, is experimenting with more creative ways to use generative AI. To experiment with the latest cutting-edge AI technology, the team built a new app called Splat. With this app you can turn any photo into a coloring page for kids.
As any parent will tell you, children love coloring. And thanks to the web, there is a seemingly endless supply of coloring book pages that you can print at home.
However, many of the websites hosting these pages are filled with ads and other clutter, making them difficult to navigate. Printable pages may also be available for a small fee, but since many children’s doodle art projects are disposable, some parents may not want to pay.
This inspired the team at Retro to develop an app for printing coloring books at home using your own photos or photos offered in educational categories for children such as animals, space, flowers, fairy tales, robots, cars, etc.
To get started with Splat, take a photo or select one from your camera roll. Then you can choose the style of photo you want to color, such as anime, 3D movies, manga, cartoons, comics, etc. The app then uses AI to turn your photo into an on-screen page or printable page that kids can color.
Instead of requiring a tedious sign-up process, the app walks you through customization options when you first start creating. Here you will be asked to select the app icon of your choice and tick the various categories that your child likes. You can also choose whether you want your kids to color the pictures as printable pages or on screen (great for when kids are bored, but you don’t want them to be glued to TV or games).
You can try one of our generative AI projects to get a feel for the app. It costs $4.99 per week or $49.99 per year to keep producing new images. The weekly option allows for 25 pages per week, and the annual option provides 500 pages per year. The option to purchase or access settings is blocked from young children by a pop-up requesting the parent’s year of birth.
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In a quick test, the app worked as promised and the quick production time meant I could quickly go from ideas to printed art, coloring, cutting out, and doing whatever else my kids wanted to do in no time.
Splat is one of several experiments using generative AI to stimulate children’s creativity and imagination in new ways. Another, Stickerbox, offers AI-generated printed stickers for coloring, and Casio also launched a fluffy robot pet called Moflin that uses AI to grow its personality over time.
Splat is available for iOS and Android.
