Heirloom Launches New Private Social Network To Help People Connect Around Memories

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Heirloom, the creators of a new platform that transforms photographic prints into beautiful digital images and allows people to connect privately over shared memories, today released the Heirloom app and announced it has raised $1 million in seed funding. Investors include Tencent and a group of angel investors led by Eduardo Vivas. Heirloom's app is available to download for free on iOS (Apple App Store) and Android (Google Play).

Heirloom estimates that over 2.5 billion people around the world own photographic prints. These are often stashed away and hard to share with others, yet the popularity of trends like "Throwback Thursday" (#tbt), coupled with the technology advances of smartphone cameras, offers a real and new opportunity to bring those images, and their associated memories, back to life.

"Throwback Thursday is now a weekly ritual across the web - we believe that speaks to the human desire to relive treasured moments from our past," said Eric Owski, co-founder and CEO, Heirloom. "Yet for many, the process of capturing old prints is clumsy and doesn't result in high quality digital images. What's more, we often want to share these moments with a more intimate circle of friends and family, versus broadcasting them with our increasingly public networks. It was this realization that led us to create Heirloom," said Owski.

The Story Behind Heirloom

Heirloom was founded by Eric Owski, together with his engineer brother, Evan Owski. After discussing plans for a "roots" trip to Europe with his dad and brother, Eric realized his family owned thousands of print photographs that told important stories, yet they belonged to his parents and were virtually impossible to share. This got Eric thinking about how to easily digitize these memories and create a way for them to be shared.

Knowing that the best possible imaging technology would set Heirloom up for success, Owski set about recruiting Willi Geiger, now Heirloom's Chief Imaging Scientist. Geiger had led the computer graphics team at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) on blockbuster films for thirteen years and understands, better than most, what it takes to create and enhance magical imagery.

The Heirloom Magic

"We're using cutting edge technology—the likes of which is usually reserved for motion graphics—to create something that's deceivingly simple to use," said Willi Geiger, chief imaging scientist, Heirloom. "One of the biggest problems we had to solve was accurate 'edge detection' of the print being captured. I'm proud to say that our app can automatically find the edges around the image, eliminate any unnecessary background such as a table or wall, and fully correct any perspective distortion," said Geiger.

Once images have been captured by Heirloom's app, they can be stored in albums and either enjoyed with other Heirloom users in private, invite-only groups, or easily shared to more public networks such as Facebook.

"Today's consumer expects to be able to capture, view, share and output any photo anytime and on any device," according to Hans Hartman, president of Suite 48 Analytics. "Heirloom now makes it possible to take your old, print photos and digitize them using your smartphone – meeting one of the remaining 'anytime, anywhere' photo enjoyment needs."

Heirloom intends to use the funds raised to build its engineering team and invest in marketing to raise awareness. For more information visit heirloom.net.

About Heirloom:
Heirloom transforms your photographic prints into beautiful digital images so you can focus on the joy of reliving shared memories with friends and family. Using your smartphone's camera, Heirloom's free app is the fastest way to capture, organize and privately share treasured photos. Available for iOS, Android and the web, Heirloom was founded in 2014 by Eric and Evan Owski and later joined by Willi Geiger. For more information visit www.heirloom.net.  

For further information
Alice Chan, Bird PR
[email protected]
415-740-8174

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SOURCE Heirloom

Related Links

http://www.heirloom.net