Visual content is constantly changing. What used to be a simple 2D image became a video and now can be now interactive. Below are some quick examples and what it means for residential home sales and marketing.
Live and 3D Photos: Taking a photo on your phone can be much more than just simple point and shoot. On the iPhone, aside from traditional, still photo, there is “Live Photo” where the image comes alive when you touch them, a la Harry Potter. Believe it or not, that came out in September 2015. It really did not take off as Live Photos only lived in the Apple ecosystem and was limited to other social media and devices. Although you can say it was just a gimmick, you have to acknowledge that Apple and other tech companies are always pushing the envelope, allowing creative people to make something of it. Although Live Photo technology may not readily help new home builders, we took the inspiration and working “Live Rendering” like the one below with a gif. Imagine pre-selling your house with this to match the Autumn season?
3D Photos: Although HTC debuted back in 2014, new phones now come with dual lens and can depth-of-field effect, letting you keep your subject sharp with a blurred background. You most likely know this as Apple’s Portrait Mode or Samsung’s Live Focus. Last week (early Oct 2018), Facebook took that dual lens technology on your phone and added “3D Photo.” 
The visual moves, which encourages people to tap into and expand more. Because long-form video has been declining as attention span shortens, 3D photo is the logical next step as a format that grabs your attention. If you want to give it try, make sure the Portrait-mode photo is emailed, not texted, so the photo retains its metadata. Also, the image works best when there is a solid background and the subject isn’t too shiny or white or is too far away. The AI also struggles with windows or glass and with human hair sometimes. What do you think – is this just a gimmick or the future? We will have to spend some time in our lab and see if we can create “3D Rendering”
360 Photos: Back in 2013, Apple put panorama feature right in the native camera app. Before that, we all had to take multiple photos and digitally stitch them together. In 2016, Facebook came out with 360-degree photos. You are already familiar with this if you use Google Street View. Ultimately, this creates an interactive photo, allow you to tilt and rotate to explore all around you. For people in residential sales and marketing, you have already this technology for several years from Matterport and Tour Factory. Rendering House also has the Interior Panotour.
We are working on other cool stuff including Sketchfab models and 360 Videos and how all that can New Home Sales and Marketing. More to come in Part 2!
