Pixxcell – A new groundbreaking patent pending interface for displaying photographs online
Pixxcell has created the world’s first time machine that enables users to view images of any place, from anytime, they wish. Working with content from Getty Images and museums, libraries and archives from across the country, their aim is to create the first archive of life on earth allowing users to explore stories from across history and into the present day.
Started in 2012 Pixxcell has been in development for nearly 3 years now. Melissa Mercer, the CEO, came up with the idea after realising that there was no long term plan for the organization of, and access to, the world’s photographs.
“The world’s photographs are disjointed” says Melissa. “They are spread across millions of different websites, thousands of museums, libraries and archives, or stored in boxes and attics. Our entire history is documented yet no one has organized it. In 100 years time how are we going to look back and see the digital records we’ve made of our lives? There is no central platform on which everything can be found. Museum and archive collections are spread across small websites, often hidden in very non user-friendly databases. Currently we have around 500 million images uploaded to Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Snapchat everyday but because they are generally only shared amongst friendship groups, the chances are we will never see some of the amazing images that document our time now. Pixxcell is a collaborative environment to display images together, which maximises their story-telling value.”
So Melissa, along with investor Toby Parkins, have been very quietly building the interface at UKNetweb in St Agnes and testing it with Getty’s vast library of 65+ million images. Now, with a new London based investor onboard, they aim to launch in July with over 50 stories populating the interface showing everything from the Great Pyramids in Giza to the Eiffel Tower in Paris from the 1800s right through to present day. “The stories are astonishing. To see a place like Times Square change over 130 years in incredible. We can’t wait for new users to start adding in photos of the times they were there and expanding the archive. We have quite a few museums, libraries and archives already wanting to work with us. I think they’ve all been waiting for something like this for quite some time”.
Pixxcell, has created its first two job roles. CEO Melissa Mercer and CTO Toby Parkins are on the look out for two full time web developers to join the team.
With the latest round of investment behind them and another one scheduled for later in the year, it is time to start building a permanent team. “Our priority is building our own development team now. We need people working on the interface everyday- building, tweaking and improving on what we already have.”
To find out more and apply for the positions go to http://jobs.pixxcell.com
To register for an invite for the site when it launches head to http://www.pixxcell.com and enter your email when prompted.