Say goodbye to that shoebox full of old photos.
The brainiacs at Google just launched PhotoScan, a free app that essentially does all of the work of a high-quality scanner. Available for Android and iOS, the app is built to scan photos into hi-resolution digital copies while eliminating the glare one gets by simply taking a photo of a photo, which, let’s be real: we’ve all been there.
Better yet, it promises the end of the prehistoric time-suck that is the flatbed scanner.
Here’s how it works: users simply just hover their phone over a print photo and the app will recognize the corners of the frame, displaying four circular overlay graphics. You’ll then guide the phone to each corner and let the app stitch everything together. Et voilà, your failed fifth-grade science project, digitized in all of its volcanic glory.
Each photo is automatically cropped and color-corrected, and can be backed up to Google Photos with one tap. From there, they can be enhanced with Google’s new editing features or searched by facial recognition. And when we say facial recognition, we’re talking some seriously advanced A.I. If you search for your father, for instance, not only will Google Photos turn up photos of him today, it can recognize photos of him when he was in a highchair.
The app also gives Google’s enhanced Movies slideshow creator a chance to shine. The creative team has announced a new crop of themes for the service — one currently available by the name “Lullaby” automatically recognizes photos of your baby (if you have one), turns them into a slideshow set to sweet music and passively delivers it to you.
What’s more: they’re easier to share than ever. Users are now able to simply share a link to an already-created album, upping the way we interact and participate in snap-sharing experiences. No more “I’ll send you those photos.” No more “I’ll create a Dropbox and we can all dump them in there.” Now it’s all centrally-located where anyone with the link can add to the collection.
All this, just in time for the holidays. Making memories easire to share? We say that makes pretty dang good gift.
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