You can now order prints of your photos in 3D

Update: As said on the comments by one user of our website, the service doesn’t take account of depth embedded on the images, results depends on the luck of an IA trying to imagine depth of the image. We will test other services that allow lenticular prints from stereo pairs (like double images on MPO, JPG or JPS formats)

Pops is a new service that offers lenticular printing of your favorite photos. In theory they use AI to calculate depth for any image, but we suspect the results can be a lot better if you only select to print photos made in the Camera Portrait Mode of you smartphone, as Portrait Mode captures a depth map with depth calculations based on information captured by two camera sensors or a dedicated depth sensor, depending the device you use (in example iPhone 11 use Truedepth sensor on front camera and dual sensor for back camera). So calculations will be better than if an AI have to guess depth by only one angle of the image.

We already ordered two hard foam small prints for review. We have not risked to trust AI calculations and both images were taken using Portrait Mode (the Camera App mode, not the orientation), taken in landscape with back lenses of iPhone 11 (as their bigger separation can make better depth calculations than front depth sensor).

One was a selfie, this picture was sharper but very fewer depth than the other photo, that was a group selfie and subjects were at different distances, this other photo, even with some blurriness was way more impressive and results were very close to see that same image in a Looking Glass: the same depth you get on 3D screens but with more angles of the image. Our advice is to capture images with more than two layers of depth (in example people or objects at various distances instead all subjects at same distance).

When showing this last photo to friends they were impressed and nobody complained about blurriness, also nobody complained about dizziness because the viewing angle is very wide, is like a Holographic screen with a lot of views (way more than the Hydrogen One), this same people sometimes complain when I show them 3D photos on glasses-free 3D screens that lacks eye-tracking, as is more difficult to find the center or sweet spot. Blurriness disappear at a distance, so bigger sizes will be better because we will usually look them from farther distance from our face.

This App service is featured on Spectacles 3, for obvious reasons Spectacles are great for taking 3D photos as the dual lenses have one of the biggest lens separation you can find on a 3D camera, making depth calculations ridiculous easy even for farther objects, making the device great for taking 3D photos and get impressive lenticular 3D prints even for subjects way farther than typical selfies.

You can choose some type of prints, most sizes are smaller than traditional prints. This is usually not a problem today because they’re more practical, people doesn’t want to carry that big pieces of paper. There are bigger sizes, too; but it should be nice to offer even larger print sizes so we could order a huge 3D landscape for our living room, that will be impressive. Prices can be cheap -if you order several 2,5€ prints so you can get free shipping-, or expensive, if you order only one or two 15€ prints; Free shipping is for orders above 35€.