New business to focus on Automatic Photobook Creation and AI Imaging
24th September 2018, Singapore: muvee Technologies Inc., the pioneer and leader in automatic video editing on mobile, has created a separate business, photobook.ai, to democratize the access to cutting-edge AI and computer vision image intelligence for photobook and photo gift companies. muvee has amassed 26 video, media analysis, and storytelling patents and became the first video editing app company in the world when it developed Movie Director for the Nokia 7610, the world’s first mobile phone which recorded video (circa 2005). Two years ago, a team at muvee began using its nearly two decades of deep expertise to address the key impediments to photobook creation, culminating in the first preview of the Albumstory AI-SDK earlier this year.
Terence Swee, CEO and Founder, muvee
“When we started muvee in 2002, camcorder sales were growing and yet people weren’t getting value out of their videos. So we made it radically easier to produce bite-sized music video automatically by analyzing videos for shot segments, faces and vectors like camera and object motions. In the last 10 years, smartphone photography has exploded, smartphone image quality is finally print-worthy, and digital press technology and e-commerce deliveries have matured – but photobooks, which are such beautiful and personalized products, are not growing quite as fast. When we looked closer, we realized they present the same issues as video editing: what to keep, and how to lay it out? So we brought our experience to bear to solve this problem,” says Terence Swee, CEO and founder, muvee Technologies. “After all, to a video company analyzing 600 vacation photos is like processing 20 seconds of 4K video at 30 frames per second.”
“What started as a product very quickly became a business and beast on its own. The deeper we looked, we found more customers hungry for a solution which enables them to get closer to the camera before cloud services like Google Photos and iCloud get to them. There are also verticals like cruise operators where Internet connections are expensive, but yet have so much computing power sailing the high seas. So we took the decision to spin off photobook.ai to focus on democratizing photobook creation, whilst muvee continues to focus on being the leader in mobile video solutions. Both companies will benefit from the complementary products and technology research focus but yet have the freedom and teams to run fast and build lasting value for their respective stakeholders.”
The new spin-off photobook.ai will launch the Albumstory AI-SDK at photokina 2018, Sept. 26-29, in Cologne, Germany.
photobook.ai is a spin-off from muvee Technologies, the inventor of automatic video editing and holder of more than 26 patents. Harnessing more than 15 years of deep experience in developing video solutions on mobile coupled with automatic storytelling using computer vision and AI, photobook.ai developed the fastest and smartest photobook creator software on the planet. The photobook.ai SDKs for Automatic Photobook creation (Albumstory) and Advanced Face Recognition and Scoring (iFace) are available for license for both Android and iOS, and also on Windows and Mac OSX.
Photobook.ai is currently seeking strategic partners and USD $1.5M in initial capital to accelerate the initial roll-out. Please contact Terence Swee for further details at [email protected].
Since 2001, muvee has been developing software and technologies to help users create easily and quickly. In its storied history, muvee has scored many world’s first: in 2002, the first smart automatic video editor for Windows, and then in 2004, the world’s first mobile video editing app for Nokia. In 2006, muvee launched the world’s first digital camera slideshow application, Pictmotion for Nikon cameras (TYO: 7731). Today, muvee develops creative software on the Mobile, Mac, and PC for AR/VR, 360 Cameras, Drones and Action Cameras. muvee’s global customers include HP (NYSE: HPQ), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), LG (KRX: 066570), Samsung (KRX: 005930), Sony (NASDAQ: SNE), Nikon (TYO: 7731), Alcatel, OPPO and Motorola. Headquartered in Singapore, muvee has team presence in San Francisco, Tokyo, Seoul, Shenzhen, India, Sri Lanka and Jakarta. Its early investors included the Government of Singapore and Walden International.
photobook.ai is a spin-off from muvee Technologies, the inventor of automatic video editing and holder of more than 26 patents. Harnessing more than 15 years of deep experience in developing video solutions on mobile coupled with automatic storytelling using computer vision and AI, photobook.ai developed the fastest and smartest photobook creator software on the planet. The photobook.ai SDKs for Automatic Photobook creation (Albumstory) and Advanced Face Recognition and Scoring (iFace) are available for license for both Android and iOS, and also on Windows and Mac OSX.