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Show HN: Vhoto – Find photos in your videos

36 points by cookingrobot 12y ago

niico 12y ago
Why not pause the video and take a screenshot of it?
- cookingrobot 12y ago
  We talk to people who totally do that. They're the perfect proto-users who get why this is useful. The Vhoto app just makes that easier, and helps jump to interesting / distinct / clear frames. You can do it entirely by hand by trying to scrub to the right frame, but point of the app (and the computer vision algos behind it) is to make it easy and do most of the work for you.
- _zen 12y ago
  That may work for 1 video and a few stills. Now try hundreds of videos and stills. I sure as hell don't want to wade through that.
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  I have no idea if this app does this (I don't think it does; it seems to just detect motion blurred frames and discard those as good candidates), but you can actually pull a lot more detail/sharpness out using multi-frame super-resolution algorithms over a series of frames (even if there is movement from frame to frame) rather than just pulling the video codec data out for one frame.
  - Goopplesoft 12y ago
    Interesting, sounds like VNC in reverse [1]. Are there any solutions to this out there? Seems like it'd be a smart way to boost a video stream. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing#Operation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing#Opera...
cookingrobot 12y ago
One of the best ways to be a better photographer is to take more pictures. Vhoto's a camera that takes that idea to the extreme.. By shooting a video instead of just one shot, you have a better chance of getting that perfect moment.
- ngokevin 12y ago
  But at a low resolution and at a slow framerate.
  - cookingrobot 12y ago
    One step at a time :) Resolution is interesting because video resolution is actually enough for a lot of purposes - sharing to FB or viewing on a retina phone display for ex.
- cookingrobot 12y ago
  And on a more personal note.. photography's been a huge hobby of mine for a long time. So it's been a ton of fun working on a new kind of camera. Would love to get your feedback! Both about what's there now in version 1, and where you would like to see this go in the future.. Thanks
  - nostromo 12y ago
    1. You guys should make a Google Glass app. It could be always on and automatically record the salient moments of an event - without me ever taking a picture. 2. You could make an auto-Leibovitz mode that picks each person's best face and merges them into a single photo. 3. Gifs!
    - cookingrobot 12y ago
      I love it :) Auto-Leibovitz is a great name too.
  - kingnight 12y ago
    What about doing the opposite — use the still image sensor and rapidly record images + audio to stitch a video together. Curious, as that might sound ridiculous, but I wonder if the iPhone's camera is fast enough, in good light situations, to get reasonable video that would provide far more optimal stills. Also, are there reasons the app doesn't tap the slo-motion capability of the iPhone 5s (and 5 can do 60fps iirc)? I'd imagine you'd have crisper stills, but you would need to sift through a lot more of them :) and also they might be more grainy.
th0br0 12y ago
So... a camera app for recording with a full-frame codec with low-res so that speed & filesize are kept low?
- cookingrobot 12y ago
  It may sound weird.. but these kind of tradeoffs work to our advantage. There are fundamental limits to performance, filesize, bandwidth that everyone has to deal with. The fact that it's such a high-dimensional space means we can find a niche and optimize for cases that current cameras are missing.
  - th0br0 12y ago
    Sorry, the comment wasn't meant as criticism. Just wanted to know what the actual product / tech was ;)
    - cookingrobot 12y ago
      I see :) Yeah, it sounds like you understand the different kind of approaches that are available here. It's fun to sort of 'misuse' some of these technologies.
kingnight 12y ago
Great name & domain. Excited to try this, but I can't imagine the IQ being worth keeping.
- cookingrobot 12y ago
  Thanks! Try it out and let me know what hit/missed. There are a surprising number of techniques for affecting IQ on iOS, so specific feedback is great.
  - kingnight 12y ago
    First thing I would suggest is to work on the onboarding, specially wrt requesting user's device features. 4 straight modal dialogs is a big turnoff, and makes the app feel more nefarious than it probably is.
Geee 12y ago
Why do I have to sign up? Why is there need for a social network for this app, I just don't get it. It would have worked beautifully just as an isolated app. I actually would love to find great photos in my videos. I was really excited about the idea, but having to sign up and reading your privacy statement about getting all my video data made me delete the app. Please someone make a copy of this without all the bullshit.
- apu 12y ago
  While you make a valid point (for some people), please try to be more civil. Remember that a real person spent time & energy working on writing and releasing this app. You likely wouldn't say your last sentence to this person in real life, so please refrain from writing it here.
- ipince 12y ago
  for cookingrobot: Just letting you know that I agree with this comment's point (though not its tone). Could this be made available without all the social and sharing stuff? :) Maybe after you build your user base you can open source it? (free for people like us but not jeopardizing your competitive advantage since you already have the network)
  - cookingrobot 12y ago
    Totally hear the sentiment in the comment. For our V1 release we wanted to have good social and community features, because that really how you win over super-users for this kind of an app. So we wanted to make sure everyone using the app was able to get that full experience. There's lots of room for experimenting with other approaches, but so far users seem to be really like that side of the experience too.
ipince 12y ago
I may have missed this on the site, but how do you choose a particular frame? I know that's kind of your "secret sauce" but I'm curious.. Frame blurriness, faces and smiles, balance.. what else?
vertis 12y ago
Was excited about the concept, but (a) don't have an iPhone, and (b) would love to be able to do it on my desktop with existing videos... Great idea though.
omtinez 12y ago
I don't see the point of this with newer generation cameras. Almost all drivers nowadays support the "photo burst" mode where you take a single photo and the driver gives you back X frames before and after the fact (at full resolution). I think Nokia calls it Perfect Shot

36 points by cookingrobot 12y ago

niico 12y ago

Why not pause the video and take a screenshot of it?

cookingrobot 12y ago
We talk to people who totally do that. They're the perfect proto-users who get why this is useful. The Vhoto app just makes that easier, and helps jump to interesting / distinct / clear frames. You can do it entirely by hand by trying to scrub to the right frame, but point of the app (and the computer vision algos behind it) is to make it easy and do most of the work for you.
_zen 12y ago
That may work for 1 video and a few stills. Now try hundreds of videos and stills. I sure as hell don't want to wade through that.
georgemcbay 12y ago
I have no idea if this app does this (I don't think it does; it seems to just detect motion blurred frames and discard those as good candidates), but you can actually pull a lot more detail/sharpness out using multi-frame super-resolution algorithms over a series of frames (even if there is movement from frame to frame) rather than just pulling the video codec data out for one frame.
- Goopplesoft 12y ago
  Interesting, sounds like VNC in reverse [1]. Are there any solutions to this out there? Seems like it'd be a smart way to boost a video stream. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing#Operation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing#Opera...

cookingrobot 12y ago

One of the best ways to be a better photographer is to take more pictures. Vhoto's a camera that takes that idea to the extreme.. By shooting a video instead of just one shot, you have a better chance of getting that perfect moment.

ngokevin 12y ago
But at a low resolution and at a slow framerate.
- cookingrobot 12y ago
  One step at a time :) Resolution is interesting because video resolution is actually enough for a lot of purposes - sharing to FB or viewing on a retina phone display for ex.
cookingrobot 12y ago
And on a more personal note.. photography's been a huge hobby of mine for a long time. So it's been a ton of fun working on a new kind of camera. Would love to get your feedback! Both about what's there now in version 1, and where you would like to see this go in the future.. Thanks
- nostromo 12y ago
  1. You guys should make a Google Glass app. It could be always on and automatically record the salient moments of an event - without me ever taking a picture. 2. You could make an auto-Leibovitz mode that picks each person's best face and merges them into a single photo. 3. Gifs!
  - cookingrobot 12y ago
    I love it :) Auto-Leibovitz is a great name too.
- kingnight 12y ago
  What about doing the opposite — use the still image sensor and rapidly record images + audio to stitch a video together. Curious, as that might sound ridiculous, but I wonder if the iPhone's camera is fast enough, in good light situations, to get reasonable video that would provide far more optimal stills. Also, are there reasons the app doesn't tap the slo-motion capability of the iPhone 5s (and 5 can do 60fps iirc)? I'd imagine you'd have crisper stills, but you would need to sift through a lot more of them :) and also they might be more grainy.

th0br0 12y ago

So... a camera app for recording with a full-frame codec with low-res so that speed & filesize are kept low?

cookingrobot 12y ago
It may sound weird.. but these kind of tradeoffs work to our advantage. There are fundamental limits to performance, filesize, bandwidth that everyone has to deal with. The fact that it's such a high-dimensional space means we can find a niche and optimize for cases that current cameras are missing.
- th0br0 12y ago
  Sorry, the comment wasn't meant as criticism. Just wanted to know what the actual product / tech was ;)
  - cookingrobot 12y ago
    I see :) Yeah, it sounds like you understand the different kind of approaches that are available here. It's fun to sort of 'misuse' some of these technologies.

kingnight 12y ago

Great name & domain. Excited to try this, but I can't imagine the IQ being worth keeping.

cookingrobot 12y ago
Thanks! Try it out and let me know what hit/missed. There are a surprising number of techniques for affecting IQ on iOS, so specific feedback is great.
- kingnight 12y ago
  First thing I would suggest is to work on the onboarding, specially wrt requesting user's device features. 4 straight modal dialogs is a big turnoff, and makes the app feel more nefarious than it probably is.

Geee 12y ago

Why do I have to sign up? Why is there need for a social network for this app, I just don't get it. It would have worked beautifully just as an isolated app. I actually would love to find great photos in my videos. I was really excited about the idea, but having to sign up and reading your privacy statement about getting all my video data made me delete the app. Please someone make a copy of this without all the bullshit.

apu 12y ago
While you make a valid point (for some people), please try to be more civil. Remember that a real person spent time & energy working on writing and releasing this app. You likely wouldn't say your last sentence to this person in real life, so please refrain from writing it here.
ipince 12y ago
for cookingrobot: Just letting you know that I agree with this comment's point (though not its tone). Could this be made available without all the social and sharing stuff? :) Maybe after you build your user base you can open source it? (free for people like us but not jeopardizing your competitive advantage since you already have the network)
- cookingrobot 12y ago
  Totally hear the sentiment in the comment. For our V1 release we wanted to have good social and community features, because that really how you win over super-users for this kind of an app. So we wanted to make sure everyone using the app was able to get that full experience. There's lots of room for experimenting with other approaches, but so far users seem to be really like that side of the experience too.

ipince 12y ago

I may have missed this on the site, but how do you choose a particular frame? I know that's kind of your "secret sauce" but I'm curious.. Frame blurriness, faces and smiles, balance.. what else?

vertis 12y ago

Was excited about the concept, but (a) don't have an iPhone, and (b) would love to be able to do it on my desktop with existing videos... Great idea though.

omtinez 12y ago

I don't see the point of this with newer generation cameras. Almost all drivers nowadays support the "photo burst" mode where you take a single photo and the driver gives you back X frames before and after the fact (at full resolution). I think Nokia calls it Perfect Shot