A creepy new use for the BlackBerry Time Shift camera...

By Kevin Michaluk on 25 Feb 2013 01:21 pm

The Mobile Nations team always works hard, but leading up to the CrackBerry site relaunch we've all been working extra hard and around the clock. Sometimes you need to take a break though, so on Friday I forced our developer Tom and community manager James to go for lunch.

In playing with the BlackBerry Z10 while waiting for our post-meal espresso to arrive, I opened up the Time Shift camera to do a demo for another friend (Remik) who was eating with us. I snapped a photo of James and Tom. Both of them posed well for the photo - their eyes were both wide open in the initial shot and I really didn't have to do any adjusting to the photo at all.

That's not really a fun Time Shift demo though, so instead I did the opposite - I found the exact moment where each of them blinked, just for a split second, set both of their faces to the position where their eyes were closed, and saved the photo. You can see the result above. Can you say creepy?

Topics: Time Shift Editorial

Kevin Michaluk 3678 (articles) 3021 (forum posts)

23 comments

QuIcKsIlV3r Feb 25, 2013 at 1:56 pm

haha I did that to my gf the other day

lorax1284 Feb 25, 2013 at 1:57 pm

I was thinking about this: being able to save multiple "combinations" of a time-shifted photo... so you could get the ultimate GOOD version where everyone is smiling and looking picture-perfect, but you could also timeshift each one so they're looking away or blinking or grimacing... which makes for different kinds of time-shifted fun.

Now, I'm waiting for an episode of CSI where someone takes a picture of someone, and seconds later there is an explosion or something, and they use the "time shift feature" to see a few seconds after the photo is taken... kind of like the "reflection off the beer-glass in the eyeball" and using the "enhance" feature to read someone's license plates... those realistic police procedurals will have to come up with a way to use this.

Kevin Michaluk Feb 25, 2013 at 1:58 pm

Yup. 100% Totally need to be able to save combinations of different Time Shift photos.

advil_yum Feb 25, 2013 at 2:13 pm

Screen Caps while using the time shift?
(I don't have a Z10)

madx80h Feb 25, 2013 at 5:38 pm

I just tried this. Screen capture doesn't work while reviewing time shift images...

Rootbrian Feb 26, 2013 at 12:03 am

I bet it does.

Roscopcoletrain Feb 25, 2013 at 2:10 pm

Start a trend. Sleeping photos

BaconMunch Feb 25, 2013 at 2:12 pm

it's the new Harlem Shake, everybody happy...then sleep. Seriously...BlackBerry (as licensed from Scalado) is starting to manipulate time and space!

LoganSix Feb 25, 2013 at 2:21 pm

New trend. Old timey Victorian Death Photos using Time Shift.

http://pinterest.com/amazeballer/victorian-death-photos/

parvezjj Feb 25, 2013 at 3:49 pm

WHAT IN THE WORLD :O

Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes Feb 26, 2013 at 12:49 am

wtf

qbnkelt Feb 26, 2013 at 6:54 am

That's exactly what I thought of when I saw the pics!!!! creepy.....

wolfen22ca Feb 25, 2013 at 2:34 pm

Another thing you need to watch for is if there is anything either moving or near the face you're adjusting.

I took a photo of my father with my niece on his shoulders. After I adjusted their faces and saved the photo, it was discovered that my niece suddenly had 3 legs!

ronniell Feb 25, 2013 at 2:38 pm

The flash light should be enabled to turn on and off in time shift mode. I got embarrassed not knowing it wasn't possible to turn flash light on in time shift mode and was trying to take a pic of someone at night. Work on that

Berry-cracked-up Feb 25, 2013 at 3:20 pm

I thought of this too, but here's the problem. In order for it to look good, the flash would need to flash continuously before and after the picture was taken. If not, when you timeshift, it will go from a picture with a flash, to a picture without....meaning the head would be significantly darker then the rest of the picture, because you timeshifted outside of when the flash went off. So in order to make this work, the flast would need to go off while it takes the before and after pictures for it to look good. I understand why there is not a flash option for timeshift, but I agree that it would be nice to have it. If you think about it, when is the 1 thing that most people blink from, which would need the timeshift correction? Eyes blinking due to a flash! So if you don't have a flash, chances are, you won't need to time shift. But if you use the normal camera, and the flash is used, you can't fix those! Doesn't make alot of sense.

Ndoki Hasaki Mar 1, 2013 at 10:57 am

Exactly. Download a flashlight app and shine it in someone's face. Would you really want a picture of that? Everyone would look bleached and squinty at best. Time shift would just give you 10 different choices of squinting faces.