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How Bruno Francois Has Kept the Self-Spinning iPhone Going

By Rain Noe - October 8, 2014

in Tech | Design Business

Bruno Francois is a clever man. Back in 2012 he figured out how to game the vibrating function in an iPhone 5, combined with data from the gyro and compass, in order to cause the iPhone to precisely rotate in place when stood up on its edge. The resultant app he created, Cycloramic, could then shoot hands-free panoramic photos and video:

This was good enough to garner Francois some 600,000-plus downloads, and with a $0.99 retail price, he presumably recouped whatever investment of time and money he put into developing the app. But earlier this year he appeared on the competitive "Shark Tank" TV show, where entrepreneurs compete to gain financial backing from Mark-Cuban-level big dogs, to see if he could go next-level. The clip was riveting:

The Cycloramic app is of course predicated on the ability of the phone to stand by itself, which is no problem with the square edges of the iPhone 5 and 5s. But last month the iPhone 6 came out... with rounded edges. The death knell for Francois' app? Hardly. Here's how he solved that one:

And yes, it works with European and UK plugs as well.

The iPhone 6 Plus, however, is too big for the prongs to support, so for now owners of the giant-sized phone are out in the Cycloramic cold. We're curious to see what Francois pulls out of his hat next.

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Greg

10 years ago

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the rate of spin doesnt matter, as it's using the gyroscope to know its orientation. it will still be taking pictures at precise intervals. he also mentions that the programming will pulse or vary the vibration frequency if the phone gets "stuck", to shake it loose.
overall, an extremely well thought-out app.
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Rob Wilkey

10 years ago

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Everything about this is super clever and I have to give mad props to Francois.

The only beef I have is that the iPhone 6 solution looks like its a little bit draggy on the spin. And they conveniently don't show any spinning footage from the phone in that video. Obviously that issue is not his fault, but maybe adding a pad of some type of lower-friction material to the base of the power plug would help?

Awesome nonetheless.
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