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A NEW APP from Google can take your old photos and convert them into high quality digital images.
The PhotoScan app can scan a photo, detect its edges, remove glare and straighten the image.
It can then be shared and safely backed up, leaving you with a digital copy of your old photo.
Google / TwitterPhotos from the past, meet scanner of the future. #PhotoScan is here for Android + iOS. https://t.co/0PRFRLySyE pic.twitter.com/RJNr5dmhcl
— Google (@Google) November 15, 2016
Jingyu Cui, Software Engineer for Google Photos, says: “We don’t want to mail away our original [photo], buying a scanner is costly and time consuming, and if you try to take a photo of a photo, you end up with crooked edges and glare.”
In recent years, the ubiquity of the smart phone and social media has meant that the camera phone has all but replaced traditional cameras as the way people take pictures. In recent years, sales of cameras have been in “free fall”.
According to a recent Internet Trends report, around 1.8 billion images are uploaded on social media every single day. That’s a mammoth 657 billion photos shared every year.
The App is available to download for free on iOS and Android.
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Just tried it there, quality surprisingly alright. Definitely doesn’t replace a scan from the negs or a really decent flatbed print scan, but definitely good enough to replace cheapo consumer scanners.
But old photos have character! Jesus, leave stuff alone!
So don’t so it!
They do indeed, but they degrade over time. Why not scan them as well as look after them?
You still have them sam. its only copying them.
@Sam: If we thought the way you do, cameras would have never been invented.
They also burn east Sam good to have a copy of your old photos.
Using an actual scanner will give a much higher quality image than a digitally rectified snap taken with a €0.05 cent camera module on a smartphone from Guangdong province with a dirty lense
Maybe it’s time you got an upgrade. They’ve come on quite a bit.
@Quiet Goer: Fully agree and anybody who thinks this is a better solution the a good quality scanner is only fooling themselves
I got prints put prints put on cd some time ago. It cost a bit. This sounds like a good idea
Read the t&c’s carefully…somewhere buried in the mountain of legalese, Google probably reserves the right to own your images. No thanks.
Fine by me. They can do what they please with my old baby photos.
Be careful what you wish for :)
have your say