The ubiquity of video recording on handheld devices lets everyone capture whatever’s happening in their lives, whether it’s a bridal shower, theme park visit or an awesome soccer game. (Or perhaps all three simultaneously.) Of course, this boom in DIY video has also sparked a boom in nausea-making, overly-jittery hand-held clips on YouTube.
Happily, YouTube is now offering a solution: image stabilization. According to the New York Times, the new feature’s an addition to the YouTube Editor suite, an interface that allows you to trim and tweak your video on the web. Stabilization apparently runs off an under-the-hood algorithm, as there doesn’t appear to be a setting or an option to toggle it on or off. And, though Google just acquired video technology company Green Parrot, this isn’t part of the promised upgrade that the service is planning. (Google Buys Video Tech Company, Plans YouTube Upgrade) Nonetheless, this is a welcome development, regardless of its provenance. It may not make you into David Lean, but it might make your bachelor(ette) party antics easier to stomach.