Hands-on: Impala app offers true smart photography [VIDEO]
Conventions like MWC are massive technology overloads. It’s easy to miss smaller things when you have devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5 being announced, but we have found an app that is quite the hidden treasure.
The Impala app for Android was invited to MWC by Qualcomm, where they took over a small section of the booth. The app is not finalized because Qualcomm only gave them 2 months, but it’s impressive how far the developers have gotten. And after a few minutes I realized why Qualcomm wanted them there.
What does Impala do?
To put it in a simple way, Impala turns your phone into a smart camera/organizer. This software analyzes the image when you are taking a photo and optimizes your camera settings to make the photo better.
For example, the app knows when you are shooting food, so it optimizes the camera settings to make your food look better. Likewise, the app can optimize photos of people. There is more than that, though. It actually gets a little interesting.
This app can be programmed to pixelate hands, for example. Or maybe people don’t want pictures of faces, skin or anything else. As we can see in the video and image below, this device was programmed to pixelate hands.
Impala’s organizational features
This software is doesn’t only take advantage of photo taking. It has post-photo features many of you will enjoy. Impala analyzes all your images and organizes them in categories for you. It worked amazingly in the demo.
How well does it work?
I have to say I was impressed by the performance of this app. They had images of cars, people, mountains, and many other categories in the gallery. Not a single image was in the wrong category, which is impressive. Categorization works like a charm!
As for the settings, it looks amazing, but I will have to wait a bit before I set my opinion in stone. It’s something I would have to try more in depth to judge. I happen to love photography, so I am often a bit cautious with automatic settings.
Release date
Thankfully, I won’t have to wait long before this app is released! Impala representative told us the app was going to be released in about 2 weeks.
Can’t wait to check it out!