Lifeprint is a small printer that is similar to the Polaroid ZIP printer that I reviewed last year. It uses Bluetooth to pair to your smartphone and the same type of ZINK thermal photo paper like the Polaroid ZIP printer. But that’s where the similarities end because the Lifeprint instant photo printer can print videos too! That’s right, it can print videos that can be viewed and shared. Think about that for a sec… How the heck is that possible? Well, there is some gadget trickery involved. It actually prints Augmented Reality Hyperphotos. So the prints look normal, but when you view them through your smartphone’s camera, they come to life to display up to 15 seconds of video. Cool right?
The Lifeprint printer will only work with the iPhone for now and can be purchased for $129.95 at LifePrintphotos.com and Apple.com. Lifeprint film is $19.95 for a pack of 30 and $49.95 for a pack of 110.
Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
Seems like folks should check out the comments about the product at kickstarter first, before thinking everything’s all hunky-dory about this product: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lifeprint/lifeprint-print-photos-that-come-to-life-in-your-h/comments
There’s still some bugs they have to figure out. Though they do say there that the Android version is in beta and they’ll have a new iOS app soon. Just fyi.
One can also check out the comments at their igg campaign as well. Seems like the comments are mostly positive…
I didn’t know it was a crowdfunded product…
Didn’t know it was a ks project either until after the end of the video, when one of the options to view had ks in the title of the vid. So I did some more sleuthing and found that the product’s shipped, and checked comments to see if folks wrote positively about it. I think, like any other product, though, one can read comments and reviews and yet still have to decide for themselves if it’s worth getting.
Neat idea though! For the videos to play, it seems like the app would just have to recognize the snapshot that was printed and then recall the live photo from which it came and superimpose that live photo in the augmented reality shot. Pretty slick! 🙂 Although, if you’re using their app on a photo and do not have the live photo in the phone’s memory or wherever it’s stored, does that mean it won’t play the live photo if it can’t access it? It doesn’t make sense that the app can recall some video not in the phone’s memory (or in iCloud)…
We were trying to figure out how they do it too. I think like you already guessed, that the app remembers the video you choose and the thumbnail associated with it to play the augmented reality clip. The question is, does the recognition slow down after you make a bunch of these images/videos? I’m thinking the video clips are uploaded to the cloud. But that’s a guess. I can get more info and update the post.
Info from someone at Lifeprint:
“The Live Photo will ABSOLUTELY come to life even if you don’t have the original content stored on your phone. We use proprietary systems in the Cloud to download the video so it quickly comes to life. So even if you don’t have the original photo, you’ll be able to watch the photo come to life no problem.”
I think you made a mistake in your link. The first retail link to Lifeprint printer goes to:
http://lifeprint.com
which is the “American Sign Language University” website. I believe you meant to link to:
http://lifeprintphotos.com
instead.
Thanks for catching my mistake. It’s been corrected.