In July of this year, a smartphone application, known as ‘Groopic’, was launched that allows everyone to be in a group photo without having to entrust your beloved phone to strangers. It was designed by a company called Eyedeus Labs, which is comprised of a team of 5 with a combined total of over 25 years experience in computer vision research.
Groopic involves three simple steps for taking a group photo. Firstly, you take a photograph with your smartphone then swap with someone who has already been photographed and have them take another with the same phone. Secondly, you tap the photographers in the photos and Groopic will automatically combine them to form one complete group photograph.
There are, of course, some limitations to the technology. Groopic, for example, requires the photographers to sit or stand to the left or right of the group so that their images can be swapped out. And the photographers must be in separate spots. It is also only available on the iPhone at the present time, but the team are working to bring the app to Android.
CEO of Eyedeus Labs, Ali Rehan, says that the company is currently focused on creating a new genre of camera-based applications that utilise computer vision. “Using our computer vision technology, we aim to bridge the gap between vision research and industry and, in turn, reshape how people interact with smartphones and cameras,” he said.
Rehan has also hinted that the Eyedeus Labs research team is involved with prototyping other new technology and that they have a number of proof concepts that have been built on computers currently being ported to smartphones. “Right now, we have some really interesting ‘natural user interface’ gaming demos on cellphones,” he said.
For more information, Groopic is explained in a YouTube video that shows the application in action.