Depthy: Depth Effect for Your Images

One of the benefits in the Android camera app is Lens Blur. This mode allows you to modify the focus point and level after taking a photo, but there’s more: Lens Blur adds a depth map to each image, which can be reused to generate an excellent 3D effect. Depthy takes advantage of that effect in a very elegant way, and everyone has the chance to upload their own images to the official site to view them.

We have talked about 3D effects applied to 2D images more than once. Most solutions are proprietary, and not all images produce good results. In part, this is due to the lack of additional information. There’s not much to do with a simple JPG, but if the image carries parallel data, any effect or post-processing benefits unexpectedly. Android has a mode called “Lens Blur”, which controls the position and intensity of focus. In short, Lens Blur tries to do through software (simulating various aperture sizes) what would normally require a professional camera and a special lens.

Lens Blur also needs to create a depth map in the image, and that’s when the Depthy portal appears. The goal of this project is to offer users a viewer to explore images using the depth map, and creating a 3D effect that is surprising in most cases. Depthy provides functions to exaggerate the effect a bit, load alternative depth maps, draw the map with the mouse, and even create an animated GIF.

The Depthy site has only five preloaded images, so the underlying idea is that all users upload their own images, and either upload their depth map or draw it. It’s very likely that our photographer friends know other methods to get a similar effect, but Depthy is very easy to use and requires no additional downloads, two aspects that are always important in this type of tool.

Official site: Depthy