Penguin Group has been working on an impressive suite of creativity apps lately, and now launched The Pocket Scavenger for iOS and Android. The Pocket Scavenger app is an interactive adaptation of Keri Smith’s THE POCKET SCAVENGER book that encourages users to actually look up from their phones and interact with the world around them. An interesting thing about Smith’s books is that these are not only about creativity, but actually encourage readers through a series of unusual games and exercises.

The Pocket Scavenger is the third creativity app based on a Keri Smith book. Just like the book, the app forces users to get out of their habitual ways of thinking and discovering new connections. Sounds exciting!

“With The Pocket Scavenger app, users will be asked to find and photograph a spectrum of quirky items: three different textures, something that was planted, something you can only find in your local environment, a found note, something with text on it, and more. Once their quarry is in hand, they can choose to be assigned an alteration dictated solely by chance: turn it into a hat that someone is wearing, add five new colors,make it part of a self-portrait, turn it into a friend, and so on. “

“After completing a scavenge, they can then upload their creation to a map…and see what scavenges are going on around them. They can also share their scavenges through Twitter and Facebook before embarking on a new hunt,” Penguin Group said in a press release.

Prior to this in 2011, Perigee launched Wreck This App based on Smith’s popular creativity book Wreck This Journal, which has sold more than a million copies. Again in 2012, the Group released “This Is Not an App” that garnered praise from all leading tech sites and journals. So, both of the previous apps based on Smith’s books were immensely successful. We hope that The Pocket Scavenger also gets the same response.

Priced at $4.99, The Pocket Scavenger is now available for download on the iTunes App Store and on Google Play. For a quick video on the app and book, click here.