Pholio: A Hard Drive to Rescue Your Photos from Digital Limbo

Pholio: A Hard Drive to Rescue Your Photos from Digital Limbo

Pholio is a hard drive that is able to collect all of your photos and videos from multiple devices into one place and then index them using modern technology. Pholio claims that most of our personal photos are in digital limbo. What they mean by this is that between computers, phones, tablets, and hard drives, our photos are kept in multiple different places. In the abundance of photos stashed across several devices, users often will not be aware of, or are unable to find photos and videos that are important to them. Pholio was created to help solve this issue.

Pholio’s first step is to collect all of your photos and videos into one place. Using SD cards or USB connections, you can import all of your content onto the device. From there Pholio automatically begins the process of analyzing and sorting your images using metadata and visual recognition technology. You will have the option of keeping a full resolution copy of your images stored on the device, or you can simply keep an optimized thumbnail of the image that can link you back to where the full resolution version can be found.

There are several impressive features within Pholio’s technology. The recognition software can quickly match faces within all of the images uploaded into the device. You can simply tap on a specific face within an image and immediately more images of that person will open up. The device also comes programmed with 20,000 search terms that can quickly be found if it appears in any of your images. These search terms work even when your device is offline.

One other feature that is useful is the ability for Pholio to customize itself to each specific user. The software is able to detect what images and faces seem to be most important to you and it will personalize your searches around that data. There is also a discovery mode where you can browse through and find forgotten or lost images. As you use this mode, you can communicate whether you want to see more or less of each type of image by swiping to the right or the left.

Pholio is only just now launching on Kickstarter and they currently have two models available. Their 500 GB model is able to hold up to 140,000 optimized thumbnails of your images, while their pro model is able to keep up to 560,000 thumbnails. Their goal is to raise just over $150,000 for their first round of products. More information can be found about the Pholio device on their website or on their Kickstarter campaign

Levi Keplar's picture

Levi Keplar is a wedding and portrait photographer and educator. He currently owns and operates his studio, Katie & Levi Photography, with his wife and is based in the Wichita, Kansas area. He has a passion for both the technical and the business sides of photography and helping others to grow in those areas as well.

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6 Comments

Now, this is worth looking into.

Pretty cool! Too bad it doesn't come in a 32TB model :/

Yeah... but if they did that, we wouldn't read until the end like I just did, only to realize it's more an idea than a product.

I'd find it interesting if it searched social media for my face (friends, family) too and downloaded a low res thumbnails so I can keep track of memories that were posted, but that I don't have on my own phone.

Don't give me crap about rights, if I can download it from facebook manually, I don't see why it can't be automated...

"There are several impressive features within Pholio’s technology. The recognition software can quickly match faces within all of the images uploaded into the device"- (You do know that Apple has been using this technology for a long long time now? Same for wifi drives)

Dear author, is this a true article or an advertisement for the kickstarter campaign? It's fine if it is, but just state it. There's been a problem with transparency on Fstoppers, and this looks no different. :/