philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

(WithIn) Wonderscope’s Apple AR app unfurls new trick: ‘Spatial storytelling’ with bunnies

The company said that in the coming year, it'll speed up how quickly it releases interactive stories in the app. That's partly thanks to the Storymaker platform that Within, Wonderscope's creator, is building. The goal is for outside creators to jump into AR animation without having to reinvent the wheel.

Next year may also feature a story starring Blob, Wonderscope's emcee who guides you through the basics of how AR works.

"We'll still negotiating Blob's contract," Chris Milk, the CEO of Within, said Wednesday. "He has a really powerful agent."

To get a sense of Wonderscope, imagine if Snapchat filters or Pokemon Go went to work at Pixar after graduating from Juilliard. It's experimenting with what Milk calls "spatial storytelling," or tales that unfold like a miniature, interactive plays on the floor or table in front of you. Speaking your lines in the script unlocks the action, and the characters look you in the eyes and talk back.

Wonderscope has frequently ranked as a top 10 iPhone download for US kids ages 6 to 8 -- the age demographic it's shooting for -- since it launched in mid-November, according to data from App Annie.

Milk also noted that the app has been popular for younger children who can't read and their parents, who read the app's scripted lines aloud on their kids' behalf. In that way, Wonderscope is like an evolution on classic storytime where a kid sits on a parent's lap and absorbs the visuals of a story while the adult reads aloud, he said.

See the full story here: https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-ar-app-wonderscope-adds-cartoon-bunnies-to-make-sense-of-spatial-storytelling/