Giphoscope: Retro Hand-Cranked Animated GIF Viewer

I’ll share a little secret with you today, and it is that I actually joined 9Gag just to look at the many hilarious animated GIFs that are made available each and every day. Animated GIFs have become one of the Internets most engaged contents, and that is likely to continue for a very long time. The fact that an animated GIF is usually short makes it the perfect format for humor, jokes and a whole lot of shenanigans. It’s simple and powerful in every way.

Well it’s time to turn all animated GIFs into something way more retro, don’t you think? A couple of innovative guys by the name of Marco Calabrese and Alessandro Scali decided to take on the task, and it resulted in the Giphoscope, a device that is going to put one or two animated GIF presentations on your table or book shelf. It’s pretty much the ultimate way to retrofy your 21st century photography if you will.

The Giphoscope is actually a device that will allow you to use a hand-crank to view your animated GIF in a way that I am pretty sure you haven’t done before. Think of it as an 1800’s way of watching short movies, very short movies. We are so busy digitizing everything in our lives that I think a device such as the Giphoscope is a necessity for all of us to stay in contact with our past.

The device allows you to hand-crank through an animated GIF that contains no more than 24 frames, well enough to create the same kind of movies you do with animated GIFs. You can actually get one of these devices yourself, but don’t think they are cheap. If you want one you will have to plonk down a geeky $400.00, but think of it as an investment you’re making to preserve a moment in time that you really want to remember. The lifetime of an animated GIF is never ending, and with the mechanical interface this hand-cranked animated GIF viewer has, I am sure this one will last forever as well.