Meural is a Smart Digital Photo Frame with Gesture Controls

Oct 11, 2017

Will Nicholls

The Meural Canvas is a new digital art frame that could be the perfect pairing for the modern-day photographer. It’s an interactive, gesture-controlled device. Essentially, it’s a giant iPad that hangs on your wall and looks like a traditional picture frame, until the image starts changing of course.

The Meural Canvas can store 8 GB of photos in its internal storage. It has 2 GB of RAM, built-in WiFi, and an anti-glare matte surface (making for an awesome display for photos) for its 27-inch 1080p screen.

The gesture-control means that you can simply swipe in front of the frame to change the image, avoiding any nasty fingerprints getting onto the screen. It can also be controlled via the Meural website or its accompanying smartphone app, allowing you to quickly upload new artwork to the Meural Canvas.

It works in any orientation and will automatically detect whether it should be in portrait or landscape mode.

You can also gesture to pull up caption information about the image on the screen, as well as changing images or selecting a new playlist for the device to scroll through automatically.

To save on energy, the screen can be put to sleep either manually or on a schedule. The ambient light sensor will adjust the brightness of the screen to suit any room, and it has been developed to optimize color and viewing angle consistency.

It comes in three styles: a black or white color made from poplar wood, or a brown version in walnut wood. The poplar versions are 29.5 x 19.2 x 1.6 inches (75 x 49 x 4 cm), and the walnut version is 30.4 x 20 x 1.6 inches (77 x 50 x 4 cm). The materials are FSC-certified American hardwoods.

Meural also offers a membership program, for $5 a month or $40 for the year, which gives you unlimited access to a huge library of artworks, that is being continually updated. This is an optional extra and not needed for using the frame.