colAR

colAR is a computer program that brings colouring book pages to life with the magic of Augmented Reality! You can colour in the book pages and then see them come to life as they pop out of the page as three dimensional models on your computer screen.

Update 15/08/12: New Version 1.2.4 Available!

We've just added a new version of the software which fixes a bug where on some computers the textures on the model wouldn't update. The new version number is 1.2.4, and available to download below.

Due to popular demand at the ISMAR and SIGGRAPH Asia conferences, we have released the Amazing Animals of New Zealand colAR software. This new version includes textured animated three dimensional models, as well the two dimensional pop up background.

System Requirements

colAR has been tested and runs well on the following system. If your computer specification is lower than this, colAR may run slowly on your computer.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2.4Ghz
Ram : 4GB Ram
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

The software works best with a high resolution or HD web camera.

Download Software

You can download the colAR colouring book software below. The software needs a webcam camera connected to your computer to run, and currently only works on the Windows operating system.

The colouring pages are included in the download as Pages.pdf.

The latest version of the software is colAR-1.2.4.

windows_logo

How colAR works

To create the virtual pop-up book scene from a coloured in page, first the software looks at the original black and white page to learn features which it can later search for to identify which page it is shown, and how that page is positioned in the environment. The software then gets images from the camera, and removes all the colour from the images. The features learnt earlier are searched for in the captured image, and if the page is found, the colour is read out of the camera image. These colours are then applied to a pop up scene which was created by the artist, and the pop up animation is played on top of the page.

User Guide

When the software is running, hold the camera facing the page as straight as possible. The page should be close to the camera, but far enough away so that the entire page is visible. For best results, the page should be as flat as possible. A good way to ensure this is to glue the colouring page on a piece of cardboard.

It may take a few seconds for the system to recognise the page. When it does you should see a box appear on the page. A red box means the system cannot see the entire page, and you should move the page so it is entirely visible. A blue box means that the system has identified the page and will read the colours off shortly.

colar-bad colar-good

Once the page has turned blue, the system will read the colours off. After a few seconds you should see your drawings pop out of the page. Feel free to move the camera and page around to have a look at it from different angles.

colarview1 colarview2

Troubleshooting

If the system is having trouble recognising your page, make sure you are using one of the two pages provided (the kiwi and the penguin), that you haven't coloured the page in too dark (we recommend coloured pencils), that the lighting in the room is bright, and that the camera is of good quality.

If you are still having trouble, click on the button in the top right of the screen. This will bring up the settings screen. There are two sliders which control the thresholds. Try changing them so that the image looks like the original black and white line drawing, as shown below.

colarsettings

If you have any other problems, you can post them on the forum, or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Researchers:	Adrian Clark , Andreas Duenser
Contributors	Elwin Lee , Katy Bang , Gabriel Salas, Shunsuke Fukuden
Date:	Jan 2011 - Jan 2012

Older Version: KidsFest Colouring Book

The HIT Lab NZ is providing this software for free for the Christchurch Kidsfest 2011 event. The application shows a normal colouring page as a pop up image through a web camera. It captures the colours that you draw with so that each coloured page will have a unique Augmented Reality scene.

Download the KidsFest coloring pages

These pages are adjusted for colAR software. Please be aware that colAR will work only with below pages.
The pages on the Kidsfest download webpage will not to work with colAR.

Download KidsFest Software

You can download the colAR Kidsfest colouring book software below. The software needs a webcam camera connected to your computer to run, and currently only works on the Windows operating system.

The latest version of the KidFest software is colAR-kidsfest-1.1.1.