Takes App Transforms Photos Into Video (Magically)
Takes is not a photo or video app. It’s not Vine or Instagram. I know you want to put it in a box, like I do, but it’s neither. Takes is new iPhone app that takes photos and turns them into a video.
Wait, wait, wait…I know what you’re thinking. You think it makes a cheesy slideshow, right? Nope. Wrong again. Takes is an app that lets you take a picture, but what you don’t realize is that it’s also recording the few seconds before and after you take that snapshot. So, when you select up to 15 pictures and hit “create,” the app does its “magic,” and you get something unexpected, set to music, and frankly, beautiful.
How many seconds before and after? That was what I was curious about. Well, it’s not a set amount. That’s where the patented technology comes in, or the “magic sauce,” according to founder, Amit Man.
“While you’re aiming and trying to get this great photo, we’re capturing not only the video, we’re also capturing what happened to your camera,” Man said. “When you press capture, we go over this algorithm design of what is the best video segment for this photo, and this is why you rarely see in the video the ceiling or the floor, you only see the good part of the video. So this is the magic behind Takes, it’s the ability of the camera to decide for you what is the best video segment.”
Man believes Takes will catch on for users because it’s easier than shooting video, which requires you to aim, direct, and steady the camera; primarily the reason people default to snapping photos. But while Takes works like a camera, the pictures you capture come alive, and they don’t have to be taken in succession.
“With Takes you can take several photos, one every hour, one every five minutes, one every day, and the story you can tell is much more complex and interesting than just telling the story of the moment,” Man said.
Similar to Instagram there’s also a social aspect to Takes. You can share the videos on Facebook or Twitter, send them by email, or save the video to your Camera Roll. From within the app, you can see the best Takes shared by others. Users are welcome to upload their videos to the website, which gives Man an idea of how the app is being used. So far? A lot of babies and dogs.
“Our next wave, we want to go more mainstream, more for young people and teens,” Man said. “But we still like the fact- it’s really emotional to me- if you go to Takes.com, we loop all the videos that people are uploading, and we really like the fact that people are uploading meaningful parts of their life, most of the time it’s family.”
Launched at SXSW in the beginning of March, Takes is only in its “first generation,” but Man has big plans for the app. Soon you will be able to snap a series of pictures quicker and it will be available on Android. But not only that, Man wants to remake the camera.
“What we really want to be is the new camera- we want to replace your native camera of the iPhone and later the Android, and after that we want to integrate it into Kodak and Nikon and all those cameras. We want to rethink camera,” Man said.