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In 2014, the open-source web experiment Depthy found another use for Google Camera’s Lens Blur photos: it used their depth data to create an image that appeared to shift as viewers moved around it. The result was an interactive parallax illusion, not a complete 3D scene. Depthy’s original site remains online, but it now displays a browser-support warning, so its present-day usability is uncertain.
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What Depthy did with a Lens Blur photo
Google Camera’s Lens Blur mode was designed to create a shallow-depth-of-field look: a subject stayed relatively sharp while the background appeared blurred. But the photo also carried depth information. In 2014, FoneArena reported that this map was stored inside an ordinary JPEG, alongside the visible image.
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That extra data gave Depthy a way to treat parts of the picture as nearer or farther away. Instead of showing every pixel as part of one flat plane, the browser could move image regions by different amounts. The foreground shifted more than the background, creating the impression of looking around within the photograph.
FoneArena described Depthy’s rendering as running in a WebGL container. Droid Life’s April 22, 2014, report introduced the project as an open-source work in progress for Google Camera Lens Blur photos. Droid Life’s original coverage and FoneArena’s explanation of the depth effect document the launch-era features.
How the parallax illusion worked
Parallax is the apparent change in an object’s position when the viewpoint shifts. Depthy used the Lens Blur depth map to move closer and farther image areas differently as the viewer panned. That relative motion suggested a change in viewpoint, a little like the layered wallpaper effect familiar from early mobile interfaces.
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The depth map was not a full model of the scene. It could indicate where visible regions sat in relation to one another, but it did not contain complete geometry for every surface hidden behind an object. When a shifted image exposed a region that the original camera had not photographed, any fill or reconstruction was an inference, not recovered detail from a second viewpoint. “3D-like” or “2.5D” is therefore more accurate than true 3D photography.
What effects Depthy offered
Parallax viewing
The headline feature let viewers pan around the depth-aware image to create a sense of movement through the scene.
Blur, Hypnotize, and Dramatize
FoneArena listed these three additional effects. They manipulated the depth information in different ways, showing that the map could be used for more than the background blur for which Lens Blur had created it.
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Features advertised on the current site
The Depthy website currently advertises parallax display, animated GIF creation, depth-map extraction, and tools for creating projects. Those are claims on the landing page, not confirmation that each feature still works: the page also reports that the browser used to access it is unsupported.
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- Capture a Lens Blur photo. The historical workflow depended on an image made with Google Camera’s Lens Blur mode, rather than an arbitrary phone photograph. The coverage concerns the KitKat-era Android app in 2014; it does not establish that current Google Camera versions offer the same capture workflow.
- Keep the original JPEG. Depthy needed the embedded depth information. A regular JPEG without the expected data might appear as a flat image or lack usable depth effects. Re-saving or sharing an image through another app can risk stripping metadata, so preserve the original file.
- Load the image in Depthy. Contemporary coverage described uploading or loading a photo, while FoneArena said processing occurred in the browser on the device. “Load the image in the browser” is the safest description; the wording does not establish a single transfer method.
- Explore the movement and effects. If the interface recognizes the depth map, try the parallax view and available effects. Export only if the current interface actually offers it.
The current site’s browser warning means these steps are historical guidance, not a promise of a working 2026 workflow. If you choose to experiment, use a non-sensitive test image in a current browser with JavaScript and WebGL enabled; trying a desktop Chromium-based browser may help, but is not guaranteed to resolve legacy-code or compatibility issues.
Why some images look convincing—and others do not
Depth-aware warping is most persuasive when a photograph has a clearly separated subject, a recognizable background, and distinct distance layers. It is more likely to look weak or uncanny when edges are ambiguous or the scene contains fine detail and overlapping forms.
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- Hair, foliage, wires, fences, and transparent or reflective objects can be hard to separate cleanly from the background.
- Motion blur, low light, repeated textures, or a misplaced focus plane can undermine the depth estimate.
- When foreground subjects cover large parts of the background, shifting them can expose gaps or require invented fill.
These are general consequences of moving a depth-labeled photograph, not measured Depthy test results. Halos, stretching, gaps, or unnatural movement are signs that the depth map cannot describe the scene as completely as a true multi-view capture or 3D model could.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Privacy, saving, and compatibility caveats
FoneArena reported in 2014 that Depthy processed images locally in the browser and did not upload or store them remotely. That is a historical description, not a current privacy guarantee or an independent audit of the code now served at the site. Avoid loading sensitive photographs unless you can verify how the current implementation handles them.
Droid Life reported that the launch-era version offered no way to save the created work. The current site’s GIF claim may reflect a later version, but its actual export behavior could not be established from the landing page. Treat the historical limitation and current advertised capability as claims about different points in the project’s life.
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Why the experiment mattered
Depthy illustrated a broader computational-photography idea: data captured to support one visual effect can enable others. Google Camera’s Lens Blur depth map was meant to help simulate shallow focus, but Depthy reused it for parallax, animation, and depth-map extraction. It was a small demonstration of the shift from treating phone photos as flat images to treating them as images accompanied by spatial clues.
As a historical experiment, Depthy is a useful example of that shift. As a tool to rely on today, it is less certain: the site is online, but its browser warning and unverified export and privacy behavior mean that successful use should not be assumed.
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