Artopia: The AR app that lets you leave virtual paintings in the real world for others to find
Reddit users are coming up with all sorts of fun uses for the app.
A new app lets you leave virtual paintings in the real world for other people to find.
Using similar augmented reality software to that which made Pokemon Go so popular, Artopia allows you to draw images on to the real world using your phone.
They then remain there, hiding in the virtual world until someone else with the app comes to the same place and can view them using their phone.
He told the Press Association: “What I’m essentially giving them is a tool and whose only limit is the creativity of those using it.
“Shop owners can leave creative virtual ads in front of their shops to attract people in a very cool and novel way. Biology teachers can create labelled 3D diagrams of cells for students to learn more easily. Performance artists can dance while painting at the same time while people are watching live.”
The 24-year-old, who lives in Kuwait but is originally from Egypt, has been working on the app for around a year.
“I had very little idea whether this was something that people would actually want or if I’m just wasting my time,” Khalil said.
“Putting the video on Reddit and seeing this overwhelming reaction from a crazy number of people was a massive relief, to be honest!”
He added: “Some Redditors had their own creative ideas as well, like marking bike lanes, decorating hike trails, and one of them even had the idea of using it to propose to a girlfriend by painting a large ‘will you marry me’ sign in their favourite spot.
“People even had the idea of setting up virtual scavenger hunts, where some paintings would only be made visible to those who saw other previous paintings. How awesome does that sound?
“It never really occurred to me until now that there could be so many creative ways people could use Artopia that I would never have thought of.”
Khalil hopes to release the app this summer, but is making no guarantees. He says features to report and remove drawings which are abusive, racist or seek to harm others will be in place before the app is launched.
