SXSW 2013 imaging roundup: New video streaming services, Google glass apps, a Kickstarter-funded wearable camera and more
posted Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 2:56 PM EDT
The annual film, technology and music bacchanalia that is SXSW has rolled around once again, and while some major companies have announced bits and pieces of new technology, this year's offerings have been lackluster on the photography front. Amidst the cluster of new apps, vaguely hinted-at webservices, and prototype hardware, there were at least one or two announcements that deserved a little more looking at.
Streaming video seemed to be a field that received a fair amount of attention. Perhaps one of the more intriguing prospects for people who shoot a lot of video comes from the folks at Vimeo. The site has announced "Vimeo on Demand" which allows Vimeo Pro users to charge viewers to see their content. Which means that you can start getting some money back from that massive time-lapse video you uploaded to Vimeo as a personal project. The revenue split for this service is 90/10, with the content creator taking 90% of the funds, and having complete control over where and for how long the videos are streamed.
This screen shot of the new Vimeo On Demand service shows how you can set pricing for viewing your content.
Still on the video front, one of the original founders of YouTube -- from back before they were acquired by Google -- is planning a new video service. Chad Hurley is looking to debut this mysterious new project next month, and it sounds like it will emphasize collaboration, and working together to create content. Video streaming has also been a major component of the musical performances at SXSW, with Warner livestreaming performances using a fleet of 10 Nikon D4 DSLRs, and Taco Bell spliced together streams from stationary and roving cameras, as well as social media.
Google announced the first round of apps for Google Glass and an API, which is capable of beaming photos and text to the headset. Evernote is also involved, and will allow you to share images you've snapped with Google Glass directly to Skitch; and the Path personal social network app is also set to roll out image sharing.
Memoto is a wearable camera that takes a picture every 30 seconds, capturing your point of view on the world without you having to press a shutter button.
Photo courtesy of AllThingsD.
On the hardware front, prototype devices seemed the order of the show.
- Memoto, the Kickstarter-funded wearable camera that captures a frame every 30 seconds, demonstrated its hardware at SXSW, and the co-founder apparently captured 10,000 images at the show.
- MakerBot announced a desktop 3D scanner called the Digitizer, which uses lasers and a small camera to make 3D models of real objects.
- Also on display at the show was the first widespread hands on for the 2k digital Bolex, and you can see a prototype of the device here. We've previously covered this device, and it will be interesting to see how it performs when it's finally released.
As ever, the software side was dominated by a slew of "meh" mobile apps. One application of note for licensing your photos is Imgembed, which lets you control how and where they're embedded. It looks like a good way of controlling attribution over services such as Tumblr, but the question with products like this is: What happens if the service goes belly up?