Our Story
Maritime isn’t the most obvious industry for a software company.
But once you’ve experienced the realities of life at sea — its scale, its challenges, and its unique character — it’s easy to get hooked.
For us, the gateway was a project for AIDA Cruises in 2015: reinventing how onboard photos were sold.
Reinventing memories at sea
If you’ve ever sailed with cruise line, you know how carefree the experience can be.
One of those little luxuries is having professional photographers capture unforgettable moments of your journey.
But with thousands of passengers and photos taken daily, the traditional process of printing every photo and hanging it on a gallery wall was outdated:
There had to be a better way.
The Photo Kiosk
Our mission: build a digital-first solution with self-service kiosks powered by face recognition and on-demand printing.
- built the entire kiosk software stack — from database to touchscreen UI
- integrated custom hardware like printers, card readers, and cameras
- deployed a heavy-duty face recognition engine
- coordinated with multiple design and hardware vendors
Trials of the sea
When the first kiosks reached the ships, we braced for our sea trials. The feedback was instant and invaluable. Within three rollouts, we had a fully working version 1.
The results spoke for themselves:
- Passengers loved the easier experience
- Revenues for the Photo Shops grew
- Printing workload, costs, and environmental footprint dropped
- Less deck space was needed for photo operations
Never stop improving
Soon, demand outpaced hardware. More kiosks were needed to avoid queues, driving up costs and space requirements. We had to think differently.
The next revolution: Photo App
Emerging mobile technology and machine learning opened a new door.
We built our own lightweight face recognition component and took the concept beyond kiosks — straight into tablets and apps.
The Photo App was
yet another success!
