This is a GIF made from a 3D photo taken with the LucidPix app. The movement shows how the perspective changes as you move your phone around.
LucidPix
After being in beta for months, the 3D photo app LucidPix is now available to iOS and Android users. Whether you have a newer phone like the iPhone 11, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip or an older one like a Motorola Moto G6 or iPhone 6S, you can take 3D photos. Best of all you don’t need a special accessory or multiple rear cameras. Instead, the app uses artificial intelligence (AI) to render 3D photos that will move as you tilt and pan your phone.Usually when the term “3D” is brought up, failed products like 3D televisions and 3D phones come to mind. Part of the problem for 3D is that it’s often hyped as the beginning of a new product category, instead of being approached as a new tool for expression. Lucid, the company behind the app, smartly embraces 3D’s role as a creative tool.
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Earlier this year at CES, Lucid showed off its imaging magic which doesn’t require specialized hardware like 2019’s $1,300 ill-fated Red Hydrogen phone. LucidPix captures 3D photos with software that mimics how the human brain processes depth. The software started out on the company’s LucidCam VR180 camera and was used by Red in the Hydrogen phone and in the unreleased Red 8K 3D Lithium cinema camera. During its time in beta, LucidPix had a thorough vetting of its features and interface by over a million people who tried the app. Here’s another 3d photo taken with the LucidPix app.
LucidPix
LucidPix can also convert your existing 2D photos into 3D. The finished images can be shared inside the app’s community or on other platforms like Facebook which has built-in support for displaying 3D images. Adding this social aspect to the app enables users to share and view 3D images just like people do with 2D images on Instagram or Snapchat. In fact, there are several large groups on Facebook dedicated to 3D photos. And at this time LucidPix seems like one of the easier ways to create and customize your own 3D snaps.
“The way consumers express themselves digitally and visually has evolved more and more to what we naturally see with our own eyes with depth,” said Han Jin, Lucid’s founder and CEO. “Thus, over the past few years, the visual medium has become more multidimensional, leading to more portrait photos, 3D content, and AR and VR being created.”Jin suggests that the technology that powers the LucidPix app will one day impact future photos formats from AR and VR to 3D and holograms whether it’s viewed on a phone or with a specialized headset.LucidPix is available for free on both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. A Pro version includes unlimited use of the app without watermarks for $6 per month or $40 per year on iOS and for $4 per month or $30 per year on Android.
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Originally published Jan. 24.Updates, June 17: Includes information about LucidPix now being out of beta and pricing.
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