360 -degree camera starting a business for 3 years, 200 employees at the age of 26.Interview with Insta360's founding president JK at Harajuku

The 360 -degree camera Insta360 series "Insta360 ONE" that can easily shoot all directions.It has been a hot topic with a variety of functions, such as a bullet time shooting like the movie "Matrix", and FreecaPtore, which allows you to shoot a bullet time like the movie "Matrix", and change the camera work to extract 1080p videos by changing the camera work.

↑ The Barrett Time Function Example ENGADGET editorial department gave me an opportunity to interview a young CEO Jingkang, who founded Shenzhen ARASHI VISION of the Insta360 series three years ago.Please see the contents of JK, who had come to Japan to play off, in Harajuku.

I was a hacker when I was a student

-There is a busy place today, thank you for your valuable time.JK speaks Japanese."A little. When I was a high school student, I watched a lot of Japanese anime and studied a little Japanese.").-This is the first question, but what kind of anime did you study and study?"NARUTO" and "Detective Conan".NARUTO ended after the serialization was over and "BORUTO" began, but Conan is still an elementary school student even after 20 years (laughs).ー ー I came in from questions that are not related to the main subject.Then, please introduce yourself to the reader again.It is called JK LIU.From 2010 to 2014, I studied software engineering at Nanjing University.Insta360 Camera's ARASHI VISION was launched a few months before graduation.It's been the third year since I started a business.I was very impressed by watching Pano's 360 -degree video a few years ago on the Internet a few years ago.I started a company that created a 360 -degree camera, thinking, "This is the next generation of storytelling. It will be a very powerful tool to experience and share memories."The products were developed by Insta360 Nano, Air, Pro, ONE.

▲ INSTA360 ONE products are sold in more than 100 countries, and the number of employees has increased more than 200.I believe that 360 -degree shooting is the future, and it will be a more powerful brand, so I'm thinking of creating a higher quality, portable, and easy -to -use camera.ー ー You studied software engineering at university, but you did not major in the fields related to the camera, especially in image processing, optical, or cameras.But I heard that it was famous as a hacker since school.What were you doing?(In Japanese) "Oh, that's a mischief" (laughs) -Eh!?Is that hacker!There is a 360 company in China, but I have examined the president's phone number and called the president directly (at that time).This case is the most famous.(Editor's Note: The mobile number of the CEO of QIHOO 360 (strange tiger 360), which was making a noise on the Chinese net at the time, from the audio in the interview video. Incident to check it to confirm. It will be a hot topic on the net)But my pride is an analysis of a school system in 2012.When our school was training in physical education, it was a mechanism that had to pass through cards.If you don't touch a total of 50 times, you can't get a unit, but at some point I thought, "Students don't always come to train with friends or boyfriends and girlfriends."So I accessed the system and analyzed the data by accessing who and who is always with me.As a result, the so -called social gram was obtained, so we announced a mischief that who was the best friend, and the two of them were compiled as a couple.It wasn't a fuss (as much as the phone number analysis case), but I'm proud.-Did you get caught in such a mischief?I wasn't caught, but I was a little angry (laughs).

R & D with professional products, small size and spread for the general public

-I've been starting a business for three years.At that time, I couldn't imagine becoming a company of this size in three years.I thought it would take a little more time.-It, I predicted that it would succeed in a few years, not three years.In the first and second year, the products were not sold yet.It developed from the third year.-But for the third year company, the number of products is large.I agree.It is the stage of accumulating technology in one or two years after starting a business, and the development of the development has become a product at once.-The INSTA360 series is developed in front of consumers and professionals.I think that a 360 -degree camera manufacturer often concentrates on one of them, but which one is the company focusing on?

As a profit, general consumers are large.However, since professionals use the Insta360 Pro for professionals in various ways, the general users are interested in the 360 -degree camera and Insta360, and the general users are interested in the 360 -degree camera and Insta360 One for consumers.There is a cycle that you want.-PRO also plays a role in expanding it to a consumer.Pro is developed using the latest technology that progresses every day.In that sense, professional products are very important.First of all, it is a flow that develops new technologies for professional products, and then minimize them to become nano, Air, and One for consumers.

-Speaking three years ago, RICOH's 360 -degree camera "THETA" had already been released.Large companies with completely different funding and development power were ahead, but why did you think you have a business opportunity after entering the same field in a startup later?(In Japanese) "I think Ricoh is Senpai."First of all, we think Ricoh is like a senior who is at the end of both technology and philosophy.RICOH has pioneered a 360 -degree camera general consumer market.However, consumers are not satisfied with one product.In one field, many companies are needed.Our products have a lot of functions and are interesting, and the development speed of software is fast.Our company is still small, but because it is small, employees can run for one goal according to the power.RICOH is a large company and handles other cameras, so I think we can compete in such a place.-The latest model Insta360 ONE sells the editing function that can be used in mobile apps large.With your smartphone, you can edit a normal video with a free camera work again, so that you can enter the 360 -degree video taken once.I thought it was a very fun and possible function to use.When did you develop that?

▲ Development was completed in April for the first time in January and February of this year, edited using FREECAPTURE.-The speed!Originally, the idea is warmed, and is it about 4 months to implement?INSTA360 STUDIO, which can edit 360 -degree videos on a PC, has been released since last year.Again, I was able to convert the angle of view and edit like a small plasticNet effect.However, because it is a PC version, it is difficult and troublesome for most users.As a result of thinking about how to make something that is easier to use, the mobile app uses the gyro on the smartphone body like a 360 -degree video viewer, and the zoom can be operated with a single finger, and these two ideas are combined.Freecapture was born.It is not unusual to shoot everything at 360 degrees once and edit only the necessary parts into ordinary videos, but the point that you can easily take a smartphone video with a mobile app is Freecapture.That's the difference.

Realize editing using AI in the future

-An the Google event, a camera called "Google Clips" was announced.It is a product that is used by keeping it on a table, etc., instead of removing the shutter in your hand.It's like a camera with a built -in photographer, where AI recognizes the subject and the family and pets just take a moment of shutter opportunities.Instead of moving the lens, it seems that the necessary parts are cut out and zoomed with a wide -angle lens.There is a difference in real -time in AI, but there are some things that can be reached with a 360 -degree camera or freeCapture in terms of catching and pulling out the whole.I agree.What I want most is the automation of FreeCapture.For example, in the future, I think it would be nice to use AI technology to automatically select angles like Google cameras, or to create a video automatically.-The FreeCAPTURE has a SmartTrack that taps the subject in the 360 -degree video, and then automatically chases with image recognition and outputs 1080p normal videos.For example, is this identifying the subject's face or becoming more sophisticated?I agree.I need AI technology.ー ー How many AI Vision hire AI engineers?AI hasn't studied much yet.However, I think that the function that AI automatically edits is important for users.Not only Google, but also GoPro is an automatic editing called Quikstories, and I think it will be very important in the future.This time, I came to Japan and took a lot of photos and videos.But choosing a good photo or editing by combining videos......Hmm (bitter smile).It is very difficult.In the future, it would be great if you use AI automatically and select photos and videos.ー ー In areas such as artificial intelligence and computer vision, or computational photography, giant giant companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook are now competing with huge funding.Arashi Vision has grown rapidly, but the budget that can be used for AI research and development is different.what should I do.As a camera maker, Google and Facebook are the goals of making industrial infrastructure and standards rather than final products like cameras and used by other companies.AI photography technology APIs and SDKs will be released, and camera manufacturers can make better products by using them.-Is there any resistance to the technologies that will become the core for cameras, such as AI and computational photography, are simply used without developing in -house?Even if you haven't focused on AI yet, there are some parts that you develop in -house.For example, the cover photos of the video list shared by the user in the Insta360 app are automatically generated by machine learning.It was released this month.This is the result of machine learning about data that had been manually editing in the past eight months.Until then, it was just a distorted 360 -degree photo thumbnail, but now the best appearance is automatically displayed.-I see.Using APIs such as Google and developing it in -house.But are you worried that going to the person who uses the prepared ones will make you go under the umbrella, or you will only make gawa like the Android smartphone manufacturer that is everywhere?Hmmm......In fact, the chips of Insta360 ONE use exactly the same for other companies.But you can do various products and services depending on the company.AI is the same.Even though the base technology is the same, it creates an interesting feature depending on the idea.The core technology is important, but how to use it and provide it to general consumers.We are developing products while thinking that it is very important.-I look forward to future products.Thank you for today.(From the editorial department: JK, Liu, is a softer, good young man. The answer to products and technologies was clear, and it was a person who seemed to have more ideas in the inside. Presentation after the interview.Then, there are also motivated initiatives in the future, such as the production of depth maps using Insta360 Pro, stereo stereo, a prototype lightfield camera, and a technology that makes imaging sensors finely shifted to miniaturization and high -resolution.Introduction. I'm looking forward to what you will be excited about in both the hardware and software.)