Nix Color Sensor and App: The Real World Color Picker for Artists
It’s not often that you see a genuinely excited bunch of people passionately working on a product that looks every bit disruptive in a market that’s already full of innovative products.
Nix Color Sensor is one of those. It’s a tiny device that aims to change an age-old tech which has long been forgotten: color sensors. In an age where artists use tools like eyedropper and color picker (plugins) right, left and center, Nix might just turn out to be the analog equivalent that everyone so dearly misses.
WHAT’S NIX. AND WHO IS IT FOR?
Nix is a patent-pending hardware that senses colors of the real world. Put it simply, you point the device over an object and the sensor will “read” the color for you. You can use a variety of tools – PC software, iPhone/Android app – to transcode this color into HSV, RGB, HSL, CMYK, HTML and more.
The sensor and the app should be a boon for a lot of people. But I think it’s a definite must-have tool for artists whose areas of expertise fall in both the worlds: analog and digital. It’s an amazing thing to be able to pick colors right out of nature’s tool box even if it includes man-made things.
WHAT NIX DOES
Nix Color Sensor is a tiny device with a color sensor. You place the sensor on an object and it picks the color for you. The biggest advantage of the device is that there is no distortion in the process of sensing the colors. So, you get the truest value.
Obviously, as is expected, you can then convert the color to an alphanumeric value (RGB, CMYK, HTML, HSV etc.). But the app actually goes beyond this: you can convert the color to a lot of media like interior wall paints, oil paints, watercolor, automotive paints etc.
It gets interesting right after this: you can then use this conversion to pick a brand (for the color) and then instantly get information about nearest store where you can buy the paint.
Now, needless to say, the app also comes with many other features like creating swatches and modifying palettes and more to keep you organized.
DESIGN
I’m biased towards the flat design trend in web and iPhone apps so Nix iPhone app’s design – that we find on the screenshots on their Kickstarter campaign page – is really attractive to me. From experience and experimental results, I can tell you that it will be a smooth and beautiful UI to use when you start using Nix.
Minimalism is at the core of Nix’s iPhone app and probably even in the hardware. It’s one of the things that look very positive about the Nix Color Sensor.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
According to Matt, the retail price for Nix Color Sensor would be $199 at the time of retail launch. However, the project is still being funded and you can grab your Nix for $99 (that’s a $100-off).
The team has set the official roll out for Feb 2014.
You must definitely check out their Kickstarter campaign here.
