Tuesday, 13 February 2018

What's in a name?

Once in a while I'm asked about the origins of the name 'Imaculum'.

Having heard that 'Kodak' was a word constructed by George Eastman, I decided to research its origins in a little more depth.

George Eastman liked the letter 'K' - he felt "it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter". Eastman then spent time creating words that started and ended with 'K'.

I've also heard that he wanted the word to be unique around the world, cannot be mispronounced, and could not be associated with anything other than the Kodak brand.

Using Eastman's naming process for inspiration, I set to work to create a name for the software I'd recently devised in my mind.

Imaculum has four core principles:

1. Ease of use for the photographer - no tech knowledge required.
2. Ease of use for the customer - no prior use of the software should be required to know how to use it.
3. Convenience for the photographer - automate as much of the image workflow as possible.
4. Convenience for the customer - enable them to find, view and purchase their images as quickly and easily as possible.

The forth principle meant that the idea of using face recognition processing to match a person's face with a face found in a photograph was built into Imaculum from the outset. This process can find photos which contain the customer's face from within a gallery of thousands of images in a matter of seconds. Other search mechanisms within the software are also available to help a customer find their images, but currently face matching remains unique to Imaculum.

So it was from this unique feature that a seed of an idea for the name was borne. Considering that I don't have a favourite letter, I needed a different reference point to progress with! My father had often attempted to translate latin mottos found on the coats of arms often seen in English National Trust homes, and this memory had stuck with me over the years.

Imaculum uses a camera to look at the customer and then in real time it matches their face with a face in a photo so, in relative terms, a customer would ultimately be looking at a mirror image of themselves.

The latin for image is: imago
The latin for mirror is: speculum

I think I drew up a list of about 15-20 variations of new word using these two latin words. Unfortunately I've lost the original list, but the variation 'Imaculum' stuck.

I feel it is hard to mispronounce (although I've seen it mis-spelt a few times as Immaculum), and time has shown it to be memorable.

Kodak went on to become a global brand by making photography accessible to a much wider range of people. Henwig's aim is that Imaculum makes event photography accessible to a much wider range of photographers.