During the last couple years we’ve been taking part in numerous hackathons and events. Hack The Visual was perfect fit for what we do at Imagga. The goal of the event is to connect different types of visual data to each other and create new and interesting prospective. All data is welcomed – pictures, music, video, geo-data, even open data, you name it. In just 48 hours over 100 participants were hacking on projects mashing existing APIs and data sets to find a solution for a real life visual problem.
The main challenge was to bring together photos, videos and other kind of imagery with hardware, interfaces, platforms, apps & services in order to unlock the next step in visual culture.
Tree main tracks have been set based on research by Imaging Mind (organizer of the event) regarding the future of imaging:
- meshed capture – connecting multiple camera sources to generate new experiences. Winner: Camera Crowd – combining multiple photos and their location data with a photo of the area you are. A mesh of pictures from different sources blended into the space
- new perspectives/interpretation of images – accessing various image data sets to extract value from them outside of the image itself. Winner: Hear The Picture – by linking each coloured pixel to its individual sound, a photo could be ‘heard’ through its own distinctive soundtrack
- interactive visuals – reworking the static images into interactive new experience. Winner: Sharon – watch the same video source with multiple people, and allow synced manipulation of the video
Grand Prize went to Splatmap – web application that allows you to photograph buildings with your smartphone and plot the information into the application.
The special Imagga API prize went to Remember – app that triggers your memories using your own photo collection. Re/Visit a place and Remember will remind you of pictures you or someone else snapped nearby. It can also search for relevant photos based on the topics in the photo (using Imagga’s image recognition tagging API), turning your photo library into a smart conversation starter wherever you might be.
Overall, great event! See you next time. And do not forget to give Imagga APIs a try!