Google launches three new photography apps for testing experimental technology
The apps, some of which are available on both the iOS App Store and Google
Play, give Google a way to test out more experimental features to see how
users respond, the company explains in an announcement on its Google
Research blog.
The apps involve a number of technologies now in development at Google, including those focused on object recognition, person segmentation, stylization algorithms, efficient image encoding and decoding technologies, Google says.
Specifically, the three apps in question are called Storyboard, Selfissimo!, and Scrubbies. Storyboard is Android-only for now.
The second app, Selfissimo!, is designed for selfies, as the name implies.The third, Scrubbies, is designed for video. This app lets you change the speed and direction of video playback to create looping videos. Instead of looping apps like Instagram’s Boomerang, Scrubbies has you go hands-on.
Scrubbies is iOS-only.
This is not the first time Google has launched experimental photography apps.
Google researchers developed Motion Stills to make iOS’s Live Videos less shaky, then brought a variation of that app to Android to offer a new recording experience for shooting sharable clips. This same Live Photo editing technology was also baked into the main Google Photos app, after some initial testing.
