The new PhotoScan app from Google will keep your memories alive by helping you keep your old photographs.
The Google PhotoScan, as its name implies, scans old photo prints and digitize them. It is available on both iOS and Android, according to reports.
Anil Sabharwal, Vice President of Google Photos, said that the PhotoScan was inspired by his family. His grandparents, who were living in Pakistan in 1947, were ordered by soldiers to leave and cross the Indian border. They gathered a few of their belongings but made sure to grab some of their photos. To this day, the only record of this family prior to that tumultuous year was an old watch and the same photographs.
It is practical
Instead of buying a scanner or having the old photographs scanned by a professional, Google PhotoScan can do the job for you. Flatbed scanners are bulky and expensive while getting help from a professional requires too much time and effort.
How it works?
After downloading the PhotoScan app, simply open it and a prompt will tell the user to align the photograph by lining it up within a border. Once aligned, press the scan button. The flash will light up signifying that the scanning will commence.
Four huge white dots will appear, one on each of the four quadrants of the photo. Move the phone over each circle until it turns blue. This allows the app to take pictures of the image from different angles. This is necessary to eliminate glare created by lights in a room.
After the four circles have turned blue, PhotoScan will create the final digitized image. Any background peeking along the edges of the photo may be removed by cropping. The final scanned image can be saved to the phone, Google Photos, or any backup storage.
Other new Google Photos features
The updated Google Photos app can now edit "Light" and "Color" using drop down menus. This allows the user to alter exposure, contrast, whites, highlights, and shadows.
Bodies of water and the blue sky will be bluer and more vibrant thanks to the new "Deep Blue" feature. "Skin Tone" prevents the red orange skin color when the overall saturation of an image is increased. This new setting also keeps the skin looking more natural when the white is not balanced or when the colors are dull.
The Auto Enhance setting can now adjust the exposure and white balance around the face of a subject with the help of machine learning technology. The "Looks" setting also uses machine learning to alter an image and attain a filter that was inspired by portrait, fashion and street photography.
