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Design

Create 3D-Drawings With Your Friends Using This Collaborative Illustration App

Dot 2 Dot allows multiple users to simultaneously manipulate both 2D and 3D illustrations.

One of my closest friends just moved to Paris for a job. In the past when we had friends over, she used to regularly start doodling on a piece of paper, and start passing it around the room as our friends talked. Once the sheet had made the rounds, it looked like a Rorschach-friendly burst of creativity, taste, and artistic sensibilities (or lack thereof). I still have several of these group illustrations saved—many with surreal animals sporting extraneous limbs and humanoid qualities.

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Now that she's out of the country, I won't be able to furiously scribble with her in real life, but thanks to a new project, I have a digital back-up plan in the form of Dot 2 Dot. The app uses Processing on smart phones and tablets, so multiple devices can share a drawing interface via Web-sockets. A user can make 3D-sketches or or record the motion of his home by using accelerometer and Gyro data. The 3D-position data then gets sent to a server in real-time so other users can make changes and manipulate the sketch. Developed by Adarsh Kosuru and Alon Chitayat at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), this system is the best way for friends to share self-created images and collaborate on drawings at long distances.

Since Dot 2 Dot allows multiple users to manipulate 2D and 3D images simultaneously, we imagine the app could encourage amazing collaborations among designers, graphic artists, and illustrators across the globe. It's certainly better than the back-and-forth of Cloud-sharing. Even if just a cool experiment, if this app becomes a widespread program, I know my Paris-bound homie and I will continue to draw cats with six eyes and three tails together, even when on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

See some images of Dot 2 Dot in action below and visit the project site for more.

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