Color Tunabee Live: Colour a Sheet, Scan It on iPhone and Watch Your Fish Swim

Color Tunabee Live takes a coloured sheet of paper and turns it into a swimming fish. You colour a printed Tunabee outline, scan it with an iPhone, and the colours you chose become the fish that swims in 3D and in AR around you.

This post explains what Color Tunabee Live is, how it works on iPhone and in the Chrome extension, and who it suits. It is coming soon on aeternusvita.io. You can get notified from the product page when it is ready.

What Color Tunabee Live is

Color Tunabee Live runs on iPhone. The store listing states the pitch plainly: "Colour a Tunabee sheet, scan it on iPhone, and watch your fish swim." The subtitle is "Scan a sheet, watch it swim."

The long description adds the core detail: "You colour a printed Tunabee sheet, then scan it with the phone. The colours you used become the fish. It swims in 3D. In AR, the same fish swims in the room around you."

That is the whole premise. The sheet is the starting point and your colouring is the texture. The phone reads the page and shows the same Tunabee, now swimming.

Eight A4 outline sheets come with it. Each one shows Tunabee as an outline ready to colour. You can print them at home and start with pencils or felt tips. Colour one, scan it, then try another with different colours.

Color Tunabee Live is part of aeternusvita.io. As the listing puts it: "Colour the Tunabee sheet, scan it, and watch your fish wear the colours you chose."

There is also a Chrome Web Store edition. It opens in its own Chrome tab and lets you colour on screen or print a sheet, colour by hand and scan with your webcam.

How it works on iPhone

The iPhone flow is print, colour, scan.

First, print an A4 sheet. Each of the eight sheets has four corner markers. They sit in the corners so the camera can find the page. The listing says: "Each sheet has four corner markers so the camera can find the page."

Second, colour the sheet. Any colours you like. The feature list repeats the result simply: "Your colours become the swimming fish."

Third, scan. Hold the phone over the coloured sheet. The camera uses the four corner markers to line up the page and read the colours. Then the fish appears.

The Play copy describes the scan as: "Hold the phone over the coloured sheet, then move the phone and look around the room in AR."

When the fish appears it swims in 3D. In AR the same fish swims in the room around you. The listing states both views: "It swims in 3D. In AR, the same fish swims in the room around you" and "The fish swims in 3D and in AR around you." On screen the fish swims in 3D. In AR you move the phone and the fish swims in the space around you.

The sheets are A4 for a standard home printer. Each is an outline, so the colouring stays simple and the scan stays clear.

What you see and hear

A scan has a short sound sequence. A reveal sound plays when the fish appears. A swim sound follows, and a music loop plays while the fish is on screen. That is the sentence from the listing: "A reveal sound plays when the fish appears. A swim sound follows, and a music loop plays while the fish is on screen." The feature list shortens it to "A reveal, a swim sound and a music loop."

You see your colours on the fish. Colour the body yellow and the fins blue and the swimming fish shows those colours in the same places. Colour the sheet differently and the next scan shows the new colours.

In AR the fish is not stuck to the page. After the scan you move the phone and look around the room. Colour at the table, scan, then stand and see the fish swimming around you.

On iPhone you do not drag points or crop by hand. You hold the phone over the page and the camera finds the markers.

The Chrome extension edition

The Chrome extension edition opens in its own Chrome tab. The Chrome Web Store description says: "Colour Tunabee on screen, or print the included colouring sheet, colour it by hand and scan it with your webcam."

So you have two options. Colour directly on screen, or print a sheet, colour by hand and scan with your webcam.

If you scan a printed sheet you line it up by hand. The description says: "To line up the sheet, drag the four dots onto the corner markers. Then press 'Make it 3D!' and your colours wrap onto Tunabee as it swims."

The button is labelled "Make it 3D!". You can also save your fish as a 3D model file. The listing states that directly: "You can also save your fish as a 3D model file."

Privacy for the extension is stated clearly: "Privacy: everything runs inside the extension. Webcam images are processed on your computer and never uploaded. There are no accounts, ads or analytics." On iPhone the Play copy says the same thing more briefly: "The app collects no data."

The brief lists platforms Web, Chrome extension and iphone-web. The web build is hosted and nothing has been submitted to any store.

Who it suits

Color Tunabee Live is for a session you do together. The Play copy says: "You do this with a child aged 10 or over, and a parent stays for the session."

If you are the parent, this is written for you. You print the sheet, set out the colours, and do the scan together. Your child colours and you help hold the phone steady if needed.

It suits you if you want a colouring activity with a clear next step. The sheet is a quiet paper activity and the scan gives it a short, visible result that reflects the choices your child just made.

It suits you if you want something that works at the table and then in the room. First at the table with pencils. Then standing with the phone, moving it and looking around in AR to see the fish around you.

It suits you if you want more than one go. Eight A4 sheets are included, so you can try different palettes. Each scan uses the colours on that sheet.

The listing names a child aged 10 or over, with a parent staying for the session. There are no health claims. The scope is the sheets, the markers, the scan, the 3D and AR fish, and the three sounds.

Privacy

On iPhone, the Play copy says: "The app collects no data."

In the Chrome extension, webcam images are processed on your computer and never uploaded. The full line is: "Webcam images are processed on your computer and never uploaded. There are no accounts, ads or analytics."

That is what the listings state. The app reads the colours on the page to create the swimming fish. There is no account to create and no description of an online save for the scan. If you save a 3D model file in the Chrome edition, that file stays on your computer.

Coming soon

Color Tunabee Live is coming soon on aeternusvita.io. The product page is where you can get notified when it is ready. Visit Color Tunabee Live and use the notify option there.

There is no price, release date, rating or review to quote because nothing has been submitted or released. The brief lists release date as not decided, ratings and reviews as none, and price as not final. Store IDs are not yet assigned. The Chrome Web Store queue is 04 and the itch.io HTML5 zip is ready but still needs an account.

If you want the scope before it arrives, the listing is the guide. Eight A4 sheets. Four corner markers so the page can be read. Scan with your iPhone and your colours become the fish. It swims in 3D and in AR around you. A reveal, a swim sound and a music loop. On Chrome, drag four dots onto the markers, press "Make it 3D!" and save your fish as a 3D model file. Made by aeternusvita.io, coming soon.