Mixbook’s App Uses AI to Make Sense of Your Disorganized Camera Roll
Mixbook, an online photo book service, has updated its app with the ability to organize photos in a camera roll “based on the story they tell” using machine learning.
While the pitch sounds like a lot of marketing buzzwords crammed together, the service sounds compelling for the average person who takes a majority of their personal photos on a smartphone. The company says that its updated app has the capability to dramatically simplify photo curation and, of course, the photo book creation process.
The app uses machine learning to scan photo metadata and select, label, and group photos together in a way that is far more organized than the average camera roll tends to be. Based on the description, it doesn’t sound like the app actually scans the content of an image, but rather information about where the image was taken.
That basically eliminates any qualms about allowing an artificial intelligence (AI) to learn a face and store that data on a company server and restricts the power of the app to metadata information like location and time.
Even with far less data than many other AI-based companies are absorbing, Mixbook says that the app can now solve a major problem that inhibits users from actually organizing and printing physical copies of their memories: the labor involved with doing so.
“From a product standpoint we focused on solving three main problems: memories are too often lost in time, photos can be a mess, and creating a meaningful story takes a lot of effort,” David Newhoff, Chief Product Officer at Mixbook explains. “The app’s incredibly intuitive machine learning tools give consumers their time and memories back and empowers them to create something meaningful and nostalgic from the palm of their hands.”
In short, the app can create a visual story of a particular prompt — like a Mother’s Day at the beach, a trip to a national park, or a weekend in New York — and help turn that into a series of photos that actually tells a cohesive story. It can do all this without getting too hands-on with a user’s personal information or their biometric data.
“Our phones’ camera rolls have become digital black holes where important memories are getting lost. We know this is making it harder for consumers to remember what matters most,” Andrew Laffoon, CEO at Mixbook says.
“Now, users can easily take a walk down memory lane and experience their memories again. Now the app automatically curates photos into stories of trips, birthdays, milestones, celebrations, and so much more. Cherished memories are instantly organized, making it easier than ever to celebrate the people and moments we don’t want to forget.”
Obviously, the goal is to sell more photo books, and to that end the app sounds like it should help get users over the finish line, especially those who have the desire to print a photo book but are frozen by indecision once they’re asked to do manual organization.
For now, Mixbook is only available on the Apple App Store.
Image credits: Mixbook
