The Kick Offers a Portable Lighting Studio for Photos and Video
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If you like taking photos and video wherever you go but wish you had a way to create better lighting, you might want to check out a product called the Kick by Rift, Inc.
The Kick is a wireless device roughly the size of an iPhone that provides lighting effects for photos and video.
It can emit plain white light, or you can adjust the color temperature to make warm or cool lighting effects.
Even more impressive, the Kick can sample and re-create lighting effects from video you have on your iPhone in a process called light streaming. For example, it can mimic the flickering light of a fire. And when you find a lighting effect you like, you can save it in a library of your favorite effects for later use.
You control the Kick via a free app that runs on the iPhone. Of course, you could use the Kick to light photos and video you take with any camera, not just one belonging to an iPhone. Here’s a longer video showing how the app works to create light streaming between a Kick and an iPhone.
Now for the good news/bad news. The bad news is you can’t buy a Kick today. It exists only as a working prototype. The good news is, you can help make the Kick a reality (and get a discount on the expected retail price) by contributing to Rift’s Kickstarter project. If you contribute $89 you will receive a basic Kick when it becomes available (expected to ship in October 2012). For a contribution of $149 more you can get a Kick Plus (with WiFi).
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