Gig Photography market: What’s in store?

Artificial Intelligence, computer vision, content, editing, imaging, investment, Marketplace, study, Visual 1st, visual recognition July 10, 2019 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

I’d like to share a few thoughts spurred by our recently released Building the Gig Photo Economy study, as well as the conversations I’ve since had with quite a few folks using or supplying Gig Photography services. First of all, we live in an era of diminishing stigma against outsourcing household tasks that consumers traditionally have done themselves. Coupled with compelling use cases for deploying gig photographers or photography workers as I wrote about earlier, there are plenty of opportunities for innovative vendors to offer services that make finding, engaging,…

The solution to Deepfakes

Blockchain, content, editing, Facebook, filter, imaging, Interface, photo sharing, PhotoTech, Social Media, technology, Twitter June 17, 2019 Paul Melcher 1 Comment

The real strength of deepfakes or alternate images is not that they falsify the truth – we have been able to that since the birth of photography but rather, thanks to social media, that they are completely dissociated from their original creators and thus their intent. When the Soviet government released a documentary, we knew to be skeptical of its content as they were notoriously prone to propaganda or biased information. Today, when we see a photo or video, we do not know its origin…

LDV Vision Summit : It’s in the silence after

analytic, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computer vision, Content Recognition, depth imaging, Facial recognition, google, imaging, interview, investment, LDV Summit, mobile, PhotoTech, Search, study, technology, visual recognition, wearable June 3, 2019 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

After all, it’s not about a specific connection, nor is it about one particular talk or presentation. It is neither about any particular individual that you catch up with or meet for the first time. The real value of the LDV Vision Summit, instead, is the sum of it all. Like a great book you keep on thinking about months after you finish it, the LDV Vision Summit fills you with so much inspiration, so much broad thinking, so much forward vision (no pun intended)…

Sea Machines Robotics delivers autonomous and advanced control technology for workboats and other commercial surface vessels. Photo ©Sea Machines

Why These 10 Venture Capitalists Are Investing in Visual Technologies

analytic, AR, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computational imaging, computer vision, Content Recognition, Facial recognition, finance, Funding, imaging, interview, investment, LDV Summit, PhotoTech, technology, visual recognition May 13, 2019 Evan Nisselson Leave a comment

Investors from Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Lux Capital, Glasswing Ventures, Imagination Capital, B Capital Group, FirstMark Capital, True Ventures, Eniac and we at LDV Capital share insights. Visual technologies were once considered cute, niche & science fiction. With more visual technology companies like Pinterest and Zoom going public, the world is starting to see the impact that visual technologies will have on our everyday lives. Large acquisitions of visual technology companies range from GM acquiring Cruise for more than $1 Billion, Intel’s acquisition of Mobileye…

Photo storage: Shoebox – the end of an era ?

Adobe, content, google, Interface, Marketplace, mobile, photo organizing, photo sharing, UGC, Visual 1st May 1, 2019 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Last week Shoebox announced it’s closing its door on May 22nd, signifying the end of an era when one innovative cloud-based photo management/synching solution after another came to market in the 2010-2015 timeframe. Founded in 2012, Shoebox has always stood out to me for its novel interface, which enabled users to search for photos by leveraging the photo’s metadata in innovative ways. For instance, you could filter your photo collection by the camera model you used, your location, time of the week, year and month, or season. MyShoebox even…

LDV Vision Summit 2019: 10 Questions to a founder : Forma Technologies

AR, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computational imaging, computer vision, Content Recognition, depth imaging, e-commerce, Interface, interview, LDV Summit, Marketplace, PhotoTech, technology, transaction April 26, 2019 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

The LDV Vision Summit, with its mixture of passionate visual tech entrepreneurs, scientists, researchers, professors, journalists, and investors is right around the corner (May22-23). As a sneak peek and respecting our now well-established tradition, we touched base with some of the scheduled speakers. The biggest challenge for online clothing retailers is not letting customers try before they buy. Not anymore, if Forma Technologies has its say… Benjamin Chiang, CEO, and co-founder agreed to sit down and tell us more about his company: – A little about you,…

Visenze : Visual search 4 years later

Brands, computer vision, content, Content Recognition, e-commerce, Facial recognition, Funding, interview, Marketplace, PhotoTech, transaction, visual recognition February 27, 2019 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

In 2015, we interviewed the CEO of then little known visual search company Visenze. Four years later, after raising $20 million in a series C and announcing a deal with Samsung, we caught with Oliver Tan to see how things have changed for his company, the technology involved, the marketplace and more Last time we talked, in 2015, ViSenze was just starting. Four years later and you are now on your Series C, with about 80 employees worldwide. How would you describe the last four…

5G is upon us. What now?

AR, Augmented reality, computational imaging, computer vision, content, depth imaging, imaging, mobile, photo organizing, PhotoTech, prosumer, Social Media, UGC, video, Visual 1st, VR January 23, 2019 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

If CES was any indication, 5G is supposed to change the world as we know it. And after all the noise we’ll no doubt hear next month at Mobile World Congress, even my 96-year-old mother-in-law will demand 5G on her phone. Before we look into how 5G might impact the world of consumer imaging, let’s first explore what it is and review the most discussed use cases in the consumer tech world at large. In simple terms, 5G is a cellular communications protocol that uses higher radio frequencies…

What to expect in 2019 (and beyond)

3D, advertising, Artificial Intelligence, Brands, computational imaging, computer vision, content, Content Recognition, e-commerce, Emotion analysis, Facebook, Facial recognition, google, imaging, in-image, Instagram, mobile, Pinterest, Snapchat, Social Media, Twitter, video, visual recognition December 26, 2018 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

As the year comes to a close, it is an excellent time to review the emerging visual tech trends ( and failures) and predict those that will have a significant impact in 2019 and beyond. Without further notice and in no particular order, here they are: Eyes in your house : There is a race, right now, to get cameras in your homes. Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant voice search are getting eyes, to serve you better. As they insert more deeply into our lives, they…

The six consumer imaging trends that stood out in 2018

Artificial Intelligence, computational imaging, content, editing, imaging, mobile, photo organizing, photo sharing, PhotoTech, Snapchat, technology, Visual 1st December 19, 2018 Hans Hartman 1 Comment

I’m a sucker for year-in-reviews, especially if they’re about soccer or speedskating (yes, really). So, with things slowing down before the holidays and a soon forthcoming CES that will bring us right back to the future, here are the six consumer imaging trends that I feel stood out this year. 1. AI is becoming ubiquitous. AI has moved way beyond its initial imaging use case of classifying objects portrayed in photos (“show me all photos with a cat in it”). For each of the phases of the…