Kids love crayons. Always have, always will. Except them crayons are just messy — having them color and draw on an iPad is so much less trying on your patience. But what if they insist on grabbing onto one of those colored sticks, though? Well, that’s what the Crayola Light Marker is for.
Made in collaboration with accessories-maker Griffin Technology, it’s an electronic crayon that lets kids color on an iPad the same way they would on a real crayon and paper combo. Whether it is to bring some pre-made line drawings to life or a personal work of art on a blank page, this should do the trick, complete with all the tactile sensations of a real coloring tool in hand.
Unlike a regular capacitive stylus, the Crayola Light Marker doesn’t need to touch the screen of an iPad. Instead, you can opt to do the coloring right on the area above the screen, similar to if you have a crayon that sprays its color onto a page, with the iPad’s front-facing camera doing the work of capturing what part of the slate is being shaded. Granted, the accessory looks more like a Sharpie than the crayons we used to have in grade school, but it should simulate the experience just fine.
Because of the unique use of the iPad’s camera, the peripheral can only work completely with the Light Marker app for now. We doubt it should be that much of a downside, though, as the app is, for all intents and purposes, a full-fledged drawing software, complete with pre-made templates of background scenes and starter designs that kids can, literally, take to immediately.
The Crayola Light Marker will be available in the Spring 2013, priced at $29.99.