Taking pictures of videos on a smartphone is convenient, but stabilizing your device for an even recording is a struggle. To help prevent blurry or choppy clips, Google released a new iOS app called Motion Stills , which the company describes as a “virtual camera operator for your Apple Live Photos.”
The app freezes the background of an image and captures motion at the center of a frame using video stabilization technology. This results in a smoother and more aesthetic clip.
"We pioneered this technology by stabilizing hundreds of millions of videos and creating GIF animations from photo bursts," Google writes on its Research Blog. “Our algorithm uses linear programming to compute a virtual camera path that is optimized to recast videos and bursts as if they were filmed using stabilization equipment, yielding a still background or creating cinematic pans to remove shakiness.”
The Motion Stills app also allows users to create a GIF or video clip by combining several stills turning it into a loop.
“Short videos are perfect for creating loops, so we added loop optimization to bring out the best in your captures,” says Google. “Our approach identifies optimal start and end points, and also discards blurry frames. As an added benefit, this fixes “pocket shots” (footage of the phone being put back into the pocket).”
To use the app, the consumer has to create a Live Photo using the native camera app and then use Google’s Motion Stills app to turn the photo(s) into a GIF or video clip. The created content can be shared on various platforms including text message and social media.
Earlier this year, Google released a new keyboard app for iPhone users called Gboard. The app’s premier feature is the ability to use the search engine without leaving the device’s keyboard. It also contains an emoji search function, GIF search, and features like Glide Typing, auto-capitalization, character preview and blocking offensive words.
