Oak is a platform designed by ToneTree that brings glasses-free augmented reality apps and games to your table top. Just place your phone on the Oak Dock and turn your table into an AR asteroid field, a music studio or a battleground. Oak includes four kits to show off the potential of the platform –
Oak Card Kit:
The Oak Card Kit is a turn based game that you can play locally or online. Each user strategically chooses a single card to begin a battle. When placed in front of the Oak dock the cards come to life as three-dimensional characters. Tapping one of three icons on each card launches an attack on your opponent. Physical cards can be leveled-up independently as all of their stats are saved digitally.
Oak Rockstar Kit:
The Rockstar Kit lets you arrange musical pads to invent your own instrument! Create the perfect layout by arranging the pads the way you want. Tap on each pad to trigger sounds and use live gestures to shape each sound. Perform and sequence our sound library or use the Rockstar Kit with other apps over MIDI.
Oak Explorer Kit:
Explore the universe as you steer through outer space using a hand-held toy spaceship. Race through rings and discover distant planets. Your ship, your hands, you’re in control.
Oak Developer Kit:
The Developer Kit lets you easily interface your apps with physical objects (totems). Get started quickly with our Unity3D or Xcode projects. Track 3D pose and position of any totem. Detect touch in front of the Oak dock and create touchable 2D objects. 2D or 3D print your own totems to control the virtual world.
As CEO of ToneTree, I handled all administrative aspects of Oak development, including project management, part sourcing, financials, product vision, user/tester relations and investor relations. I was also involved in the hardware and software design.
In November 2016 ToneTree launched Oak on Kickstarter. Although we reached our public goal, we did not get enough orders of physical units to begin manufacturing. We got great exposure and were approached by many excited customers and media outlets, but we ran into crucial product-market-fit challenges. We learned a great deal from the experience and used the opportunity to collect as much data as possible.
More about ToneTree:
ToneTree was founded in 2014 by myself, Ronald Sardarian and Max Escaler. At the time, we were roommates at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We have since participated in the first cohort of the Intel Accelerator, won numerous awards like the San Francisco Music Tech Summit Startup Competition and the John W. Henry Family Foundation Award for Social Impact and have worked with companies like Google and influencers like Apl.de.Ap from the Black Eyed Peas.