VideoStabilization
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Facebook announces Cinema stabilization for Video on Instagram: iOS version only (update: more details)
If you somehow haven't heard, today's big Facebook announcement was Video on Instagram, and to accompany that news the team unveiled Cinema stabilization, meant to improve the quality (read: decrease the wobbliness) of your 15-second clips. Android users, take note: the feature is only available on the iPhone 5 and 4S, though we imagine it could it is slated to appear on Google's mobile OS later down the line. For now, it's iOS only due to the difficulties of dealing with Android device fragmentation Instagram founder Kevin Systrom explained that the technology was created with input from "cinematic experts," and we definitely noticed the difference in the before-and-after demo on stage. In scenarios such as filming a kid riding a bike, the stabilization seemed to tamper the jerkiness that inevitably comes with moving shots. The feature is enabled by default, but pressing the camera icon (seen above) will turn it off. iOS users can try out the new functionality by clicking through to the App Store below. Update: We just got done chatting with some of the Instagram engineers and got to learn a bit more about Cinema. Turns out, it took the work of four or five engineers to make the image stabilization feature a reality. According to CEO Kevin Systrom, Instagram already has one patent for the technology powering Cinema and there may be more IP to come out of the feature. Not surprisingly, that's why we couldn't get any more information about Cinema, but we were told that more will be revealed as the technology's legal protections are solidified. So, keep an eye out folks, as Cinema's secrets will eventually, some day, be revealed (we hope).
Google buys Green Parrot Pictures, looking to make YouTube vids easier on the eye
If you can't fix it, buy someone who can. That must be Google's rationale behind this latest acquisition, as the proprietor of YouTube has just bought Green Parrot Pictures, a company concerned solely with enhancing and improving the quality of video content. Through the use of some fancy motion prediction algorithms, the Irish startup has been able to build a name for itself over the past few years, and now it's been snapped up by the biggest fish in the online video ocean. The removal of flicker, noise and blotches from poorly executed recordings sounds nice, but we're most excited by Green Parrot's video stabilization feature. With all the cameraphone video being uploaded nowadays, there's plenty of camera shake populating YouTube's archives, and the addition of such a potent post-production technique seems like a veritable boon to us. Check out video demos of the stabilization algorithm and Green Parrot's other technologies below.
