Today’s shutterbugs have Hipstamatic to make photos look like Polaroids and Instagram for sharing photos online. Now, Brooklyn tech company Breakfast wants to bring the two together with Instaprint, an offline photo booth that produces hard copies of Instagram shots on Polaroid-style prints.
Breakfast first came up with the idea for Instaprint in the spring of 2011, when the company wired a prototype that would print out any Instagram photo published with a specific hashtag (#instprint) or in a specific location. Since, the company has gone about raising interest for the device by showing it off at various high-profile events, including the Grammys, South by Southwest 2011, and Lady Gaga concerts.
You can see Instaprint in action by checking in on Breakfast’s live feed of their in-office device:
Free live streaming by Ustream
Breakfast’s goal right now is to mass produce the Instaprint box for distribution by the end of the summer, and it’s taken to Kickstarter to raise the $500,000 necessary to design, develop, manufacture, and ship the device.
It’s a lofty goal, but with 54 days left in the campaign Breakfast has already managed to raise $44,796 through the contributions of 192 backers. That includes 65 backers who were so excited about the prospect of printing out their Instagram shots that they ponied up t20 sheets of ink-less paper.
“Going from prototype to consumer product is a massive step, and is something Breakfast has been working on for almost a year,” the team wrote on Instaprint’s Kickstarter page. “Some things are sure to change as we get into the thick of it, but that means things will only get better.”