Instagram Unveils Hyperlapse For Super-Smooth Time Lapse Videos

Instagram unveiled Hyperlapse Tuesday, an app that allows any iPhone user to create time-lapse videos and Hollywood-style tracking shots. Hyperlapse is able to smooth out even the jerkiest motions by using the iPhone’s built-in sensors, Instagram said.

Traditional time-lapse videos, essentially the opposite of slow-motion, are made from a series of shots taken by a still camera. However, the Hyperlapse app allows users to film even as they move.

Hyperlapse uses information from the iPhone’s built-in gyroscope for a clever form of anti-blur. Thanks to this method for avoiding shaky videos, Hyperlapse also works on the go, allowing users to create everything from a smooth tracking shot that looks like that great scene in “Goodfellas,” to interesting time-lapses of a ride through Yellowstone National Park.

Instagram says it is working on a version for Android, but has not been given the necessary software components, or APIs, required by Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to access necessary information from the phone’s camera and gyroscope.

As an app, Hyperlapse is quite simple: It opens showing a camera view (following a short introduction) and then asks for a playback speed, from normal to 12 times faster. It doesn’t require an account, but asks users if they want to share their latest masterpiece on Instagram where videos are limited to 15 seconds, or the social network of its parent company, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB).

Image stabilization at Hyperlapse’s level usually requires a great deal of hardware, but as Wired explains, Instagram’s new app records a phone’s motion from its gyroscope to streamline the process. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) may have slow-motion video locked down, but Facebook has a unique video app in Hyperlapse by Instagram.