Hyperlapse, Instagram's New App, Is Like a $15,000 Video Setup in Your Hand

Inspired by a demo in which he saw gyroscopes attached to cameras to de-blur their images, Karpenko had an aha moment: Smartphones didn't have nearly enough power to replicate video-editing software, but they did have built-in gyroscopes. Surfacing the Company's Good Ideas Dimson eventually cajoled Karpenko into ginning up a prototype app that wouldn't just improve the shakiness in your typical handheld videos, but was robust enough that you could run around with it and still have the camera look like it was still. The only choices you make in the Hyperlapse UI are the speed of replay and whether to save your video Instagram Eventually the duo uploaded video of the app in action to Instagram's internal message board, where it received the ultimate blessing: a single comment from Instagram co-founder and CEO, Kevin Systrom. This, in turn, egged them on to present their project to the wider group, at the company's first "pitch-a-thon" for new creative tools, held last January. "We didn't want to create a special use that would just be hidden," says Mike Krieger, Instagram's co-founder and CTO.