Forget Photos and Video. SpinCam App Captures 360-Degree ‘Spins’

A new iOS app called SpinCam attempts to blur the line between video and panoramic photos, claiming to create a new type of photographic media entirely –- Spins.
Unlike traditional photos, Spins capture a 360-degree image of a moment that can be experienced interactively. Spins are created by holding your phone up and “spinning” around in a circle to create a panoramic-style photo, or spinning around a person or thing to create an image much like this one from outside our San Francisco office.
While you might use the app in place of taking a panoramic photo or shooting a short video, the folks at SpinCam are quick to point out that the app creates its own medium.
“Spins really fall into a new category of interactive media that is ideal for concisely sharing an experience,” SpinCam CEO Josh Aller told Mashable. “Though it takes just seconds to capture, viewers typically explore the spin for over 30 seconds. That inversion of capture time to viewing time is unique to this form of visual media. We see people using SpinCam to capture panoramas simply because it’s faster and easier than with panoramic capture apps like Photosynth. We don’t see Spins as a replacement for panoramic images but it’s so much easier to capture a Spin that many folks are using SpinCam for that purpose.”
“We also think it’s great that it’s mostly people that are being Spun, not places or things,” Aller added. “It’s a great way to share personality and group photos…we are seeing users do things with it that we could never have imagined. For example, a new meme has emerged that we are calling the “Matrix” spin in which time appears to stop and that meme has been copied many times.”
Spins created using SpinCam are saved within the app on your phone for sharing with others and can also be uploaded to Facebook. The app already has 200,000 downloads, and from that group of early adopters more than 6,000 are already sharing images. While shares are currently Facebook-specific, SpinCam plans to integrate email, Twitter, and SMS sharing in the near future. Spins you share are currently uploaded to a webpage, so while you’ll have to upload a spin to Facebook to get that URL, you can copy/paste that URL and send it to a friend elsewhere.
Long-term, SpinCam sees itself evolving into its own popular social network much like Instagram. Like Instagram, the app currently has Featured and Liked sections where you can browse through popular Spins shared by other users. As the community grows, those sections will ultimately be populated with more and more interesting spins. Plans are also in the works for an Android version.
“We see this as only the beginning of a new media form,” Aller said. “We see our purpose as serving our users in their creative pursuits. They are leading and we are along for the ride. We don’t know where this will go but we will evolve the product rapidly to meet their changing needs.”