Intellicam brings first automatic facial recognition system to Windows Phone 8

By George Ponder
last updated

Intellicam is a Windows Phone 8 camera app that might come in handy if you find yourself missing shots because of challenging subjects or have your hands full.

Intellicam utilizes facial recognition and voice commands to activate the shutter. No need to reach for the shutter button or tap the screen. Just wait for someone to face the camera or say the trigger word ("cheese" by default).

It's an innovative concept and while Intellicam may not appeal to everyone it can be a handy, hands free option for your camera.

Intellicam's interface is laid out simple. You have your camera view finder with trigger word displayed and two button controls along the bottom of the screen. One to mute the audio trigger and the other to control the flash.

Up under the three dot menu you'll find options to access the dashboard (Intellicam's settings), enable/disable auto-snap, enable/disable facial tracking, review the app, and disable image watermarking (buy the full version).

Intellicam's settings allows you to customize the trigger word, turn on/off face detection alerts and turn on/off system tray visibility. Images are saved at a reduced resolution (1536x2048) with no option to save at full resolution.  You can review your Intellicam photos by swiping to the right.  Images can not be shared from within Intellicam (you've gotta go to the Picture Hub for that).

The auto-snap feature snaps an image when it detects a persons face while the face tracking works on focusing on the faces of moving objects. The voice commands can be triggered by your voice, the voice of your subject (if they can speak) and unfortunately at times by background noises.

So how well does Intellicam work? Not too bad. It did struggle a little staying focused on moving people. The voice triggers are a nice touch when you can't get your finger to the shutter quick enough.

Intellicam won't appeal to everyone and is one of those apps you really should try before buying. The trial version is fully functional but does place a "Taken with Intellicam" watermark at the bottom of the photo. You can get rid of the watermark for $3.49.

You can find Intellicam Free (left QR Tag) here in the (opens in new tab) Windows Phone Store. The paid version of Intellicam (right QR Tag) can be purchased in-app or here in the (opens in new tab) Windows Phone Store.

Thanks, everyone, for the tips!

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

27 Comments
  • What's the difference in free and the paid version ?
  • Read article, free version has watermark on it :)
  • Thanks guys appreciate your help :)
  • Please read the article :
    "The trial version is fully functional but does place a "Taken with Intellicam" watermark at the bottom of the photo."
  • they have this built in my prev Xperia phone, but of course minus the voice command, I thought Nokia will bring face recognition sometime in the future considering the competition have this on their default camera app
  • Doesn't recognise my face, not even after I shower :(
  • LOLOLOLOL
  • Hahahahaha
  • Priceless :-)
  • Awesome!
  • Lol :)
  • Sounds interesting, but until it supports full resolution I wouldn't use it. No point in paying to own an awesome camera and then downgrading its images. Perhaps the Dev can make it work at full red and then it would seem like a real winning concept!
  • Hi MadSci2,
     
    I’m the developer of Intellicam. Unfortunately there is a known bug with the current version of the Windows Phone 8 operating system that causes saving of large images to the phone’s media library to fail intermittently. It’s more pronounced on lower end devices, but also occurs on phones like the Lumia 920. During my testing I found that reducing the image resolution to the second highest setting prevents the intermittent failure, so that’s why I chose to do that. Microsoft stated that the issue should be fixed in the next update to the OS, as detailed here:
     
    http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpdevelop/thread/7d79ac8e-da65-4491-af8a-5efcd873b88e/
     
    As soon as the bug is fixed in the OS, I will update the app to use the highest resolution setting.
     
    Cheers,
    Daniel
  • Is this app similar to Headshot?
  • Similar, but Headshot follows you with voice prompts to help you line up the shot. They both could use a couple of features:
    * control the flash
    * add a timer
    * take multiple shots (like a photobooth)  
  • Will there be a version for Windows phone 7.x?. I'm kind of feeling left out here. I have an htc Titan, its more than capable to run this app!!!
  • You Windows Phone 7.x users.
     
    IT'S TIME TO UPGRADE TO WINDOWS PHONE 8!    WP8 PHONES ARE DIRT CHEAP NOW!
     
    No sense in holding on to the past now with the legacy 7.x architecture. Not only does it add development time to released apps, it just doesn't make sense to demand 7.x versions of a shiny new app for Windows Phone, just because. Just bite the bullet and buy a new phone outright or upgrade (you weren't going to switch carriers anyway).
     
    Let's not hold onto baggage and move on please. Windows Phone needs to get off the ground. Right now it's just speeding down the runway!!
  • Hi Adam,
    Not really. Intellicam uses facial recognition to focus on people in the picture and voice recognition to control the camera shutter. Intellicam also has an Auto-Snap feature that automatically takes photos when the camera identifies a face.
    Cheers,
    Daniel
  • Thanks for the explaination Daniel. Definitely gonna try it.
  • Hi Wevenhuis,
     
    I would release a WP7 version, but the Windows Phone 7.* SDKs lacks the voice recognition API and some other critical bits.
     
    Cheers,
    Daniel
  • Hi Daniel,
    Thanks for clearing up why it is more challenging to make this app for windows phone 7. That's very unfortunate to here that windows phone 7 lacks the critical bits. I believe that voice recognition is part of the SDK as Tell Me was released out of the box for windows phone mango and higher devices. In theory thus it should be possible. I know for a fact that there is currently no language support package for my country (the Netherlands). So this will probably mean another long wait before it is applicable to my country. Perhaps windows phone 9.... (sigh).
    Just out of curiosity, does your app need a 3g or wifi connection to use the voice recognition API? Or is it backed into the app. The reason I'm asking is that many pictures I, and perhaps others make are in bad 3G and wifi connected areas, e.g. when on holiday in the forrest, lakes, deserts, planes or mountains. One depends then less on connectivity and more on onboard offline support. If it was part of the phone this would have MASSIVE potential.I do a lot of mountain climbing and hiking. I currently use a timer, but with voice activation it would have  great implications!
  • I think WP7 SDK doesn't give third party access to voice API hence, you don't have any voice recognition from third party apps.
  • rockstarzz is correct, the voice recognition and text to speech APIs didn't arrive until the 8.0 SDK. The Tell Me app must be using it's own library for that or relying on a third party service.
    Wevenhuis, Intellicam doesn't need wi-fi or any network connectivity. So, you can take it on the road no worries. I'd love to know your experiences with using the app, and if you have any feedback or feature ideas, or even take some cool shots, please drop me an email anytime at danielvaughan@outcoder.com.
     
    Cheers,
    Daniel
  • Hi Daniel,
     
    Thanks for your reply. I would love to give your app a go, again if it supported windows phone 7 in any way.Unless you could manage sponsoring me a Lumia 920. I will be going into the swiss alps this summer. Untill I have a windows 8 phone unfortunately, you will have to wait a little longer. But that many of your features work offline from the start sounds very promising. I love apps that work offline.
  • OFF-TOPIC
    I've always said it's not just smartphone camera, bought a Lumia 920 WP 8 by the technical specifications, storage capacity, the resources that the fluidity of the system can provide, not only for the great camera that he owns and that many lay users do not even know to use. The update (firmware version) Amber (Nokia) will only bring improvements to the camera functions, and users of WP 8 need other features still missing, even the basic appliances (including Nokia) have natively.
    I hope the update (OS version) GDR2 (Microsoft) to bring the current handsets with Windows Phone 8 features that the system needs to get it really make a difference in the market, otherwise not know huh. ..
    Microsoft (which is responsible for the operating system) should rule OFFICIALLY on the next mobile operating system update (GDR2, PR2.0, Blue, WP 8.1, or whatever the name) will provide users of Windows Phone 8 because they are tired of so many rumors.
  • I hope for a Burst mode where i can keep on tapping on the screen to take pics each time.
     
    smartshoot takes all the shots at one go but i want a mode like in DSLR where i can keep on pressing the shutter button to take new pics every second at irregular intervals.
  • Hi Daniel_Vaughan, I want to develope an app for Face detection and recgniton from a given photo based on the photos in trained set. Will it possible to do it on windows phone 7 ? Could you please tell me the Open CV support for windows? PLease help me