Google Photos adds automatically generated 3D Cinematic photos

Today Google has announced an intriguing new feature to its Photos service. It's called Cinematic photos, and as you can see in the demo below, this will automatically create a 3D-like effect for some of your shots. This will work in the Memories section of the app, and you don't have to do anything - you'll find Cinematic photos in your recent highlights at the top of your photo grid.

The feature wants to make you relive your memories in a more vivid and realistic way, and it uses machine learning to predict an image's depth and produce a 3D representation of the scene, even if the original image doesn't include depth information from the camera. The final step is animating a virtual camera for a smooth panning effect, similar to what you see in movies - hence the Cinematic photos name.

Over the next few weeks, we’re rolling out Cinematic photos to help you relive your memories in a way that feels more vivid and realistic.https://t.co/waXN3EF957 pic.twitter.com/BY2duRwjde

— Google Photos (@googlephotos) December 15, 2020

This will gradually roll out to Photos users over the next month. You'll be able to share Cinematic photos with people by sending them as videos "in just a few taps".

Additionally, Google Photos is also getting some new collage designs, "richer, artistically designed layouts" that are populated and stylized using AI, which bases its selections on finding similar colors to the ones in the photos, and using those to accent specific details like the font and background color.

Memories will now surface photos of the most important people in your life, and soon it will also show your favorite things and activities too - think sunsets, baking, hiking. Of course you can always hide specific people or time periods so you don't get hit with a collage featuring your ex.

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