Forefront | Shadowstone holds a smart imaging hackathon, moving from AI editing to mobile photographers

Text | Zhang Ziyi Editor | Yuan Silai Recently, Shadowstone held the 2026 Bold Maker Intelligent Image Challenge in Nanjing. More than 220 young makers completed prototype development in four days and three nights, and 15 teams entered the finals to compete for 300,000 yuan in cash and 200,000 yuan in prizes. During the competition, a team composed of students from Nanjing University tried to solve the "last 10 meters" of travel for the visually impaired: when map navigation can only take people near the destination, the panoramic device continues to observe the surrounding environment, AI identifies entrances and obstacles, and then prompts the direction and distance through voice. Project member Luo Jingyi originally studied architecture. After interviewing visually impaired people, the team moved the idea of ​​​​connecting the "last mile" in architecture to the last ten meters. Other entries are not just about taking pictures: someone used a smart imaging ball to collect images of the pet's mouth, someone used a camera to recognize sign language and vocalize and display words in real time, and a team installed a panoramic camera on a self-developed underwater platform and completed assembly and underwater testing within 48 hours. The above works collectively point to a change - the camera is no longer just a recording tool, but also begins to take on the tasks of environmental perception, understanding and feedback. This also echoes the AI ​​technology route that Shadowstone is adjusting. Qi Lu, head of Shadowstone Research Institute and chief artificial intelligence officer, introduced during the event that Shadowstone splits intelligent images into four links: "selection, shooting, editing, and transmission": allowing AI to participate in composition and scene interaction, improve image quality and sound processing, complete automatic editing, and explore new ways of sharing content. AI is no longer just a single function in the camera, but is integrated into the complete link from scene selection to content dissemination. 36Kr learned that the above planned route has already appeared in specific products. The multi-modal voice assistant Kira can interact with users based on the scene seen through the lens; "Moment Pro" completes automatic editing in the cloud through a universal large model and Shadowstone's self-developed panoramic model PanoMind; "3D Time Warehouse" uses 3D reconstruction technology to convert panoramic videos into spatial content. Shadowstone disclosed that the number of paid users of the cloud storage subscription service Insta360+ increased by more than 124% compared with the same period last year. Qi Lu said that automatic editing and A