What is your project, and what problem does it solve?
If you are a casual user who just wants to upscale a few videos it's surprisingly frustrating. There are paid tools like Topaz Labs which are excellent but overkill for non-professional work, and open source projects like Video2X which require a bunch of setup & config. I'm building a quick, free tool for upscaling videos with AI right in the browser, no sign up or registration needed.
Please describe in more detail why this proposal is valuable for the Livepeer ecosystem
This would be a new use case for the livepeer network, which should hopefully bring in an increasing amount of demand.
Please describe in details what your final deliverable for this project will be.
I launched a basic MVP and have gotten ~300 users per day organically.
I want to do some basic SEO and spread the word on reddit product hunt etc... to grow past 10k MAU.
I also want to develop some more powerful AI Upscaling models (like RealESRGAN) into the product
With those, I think the product would be ready for commercialization.
How will this deliverable benefit the Livepeer ecosystem?
This would be a new use case for the livepeer network, which should hopefully bring in an increasing amount of demand.
Please break up your development work into a clear set of milestones
Number
Description
Deliverable
Amount
Start Date
End Date
2
Getting the software ready for production and monetization, including internationalization and proper monitoring and reporting tools (sentry, segment), as well as promoting it on various forums
Internationalization
99% error free rate (99% of users who try to upscale are able to without errors)
Product hunt launch
10K MAU
$2,000.00
3/1/2024
3/31/2024
1
Development of light versions of RealESRGan (or a similar network), tuned for real-life video content, implemented in https://github.com/sb2702/websr, and in turn deployed in the free product: https://github.com/sb2702/free-ai-video-upscaler
Development of light versions of RealESRGan (or a similar network), tuned for real-life video content, implemented in https://github.com/sb2702/websr, and in turn deployed in the free product: https://github.com/sb2702/free-ai-video-upscaler
$3,000.00
1/4/2024
2/29/2024
What is the total amount requested (in USD)?
5000
Specify your team's long-term plans to maintain this software and upgrade it over time
A main goal for pursuing the dual goal of monetization and open source is in order to (1) obtain help from the open source community for identifying and fixing issues with the software and (2) Obtaining resources to be able to help with maintenance and development of the software.
Please describe (in words) your team's relevant experience, and why you think you are the right team to build this project. You can cite your team's prior experience in similar domains, doing similar dev work, individual team members' backgrounds, etc.
I'm the developer of https://github.com/sb2702/websr, one of very few people who understand how to implement AI Upscaling on the web. I previously had my own startup called Vectorly, which also offered a similar AI Upscaling WebSDK, before we pivoted and were then later acquired by my current employer.
Who is your target user group? How do you plan on getting your users to use this?
Casual users who are just looking to have some videos lying around to upscale. I previously developed a Web SDK for running AI Upscaling on videos in the browser. There were 10k+ unique monthly visitors to the website. After interviewing some users, I found out they were casual users looking to upscale some videos. Users are already searching for this on Google, this project aims to cater to them.
How did you learn about the Livepeer Grants Program?
Met Shannon at Demuxed
Was this project started at a hackathon or another web3 event? Which one?
N/A, side project I started working on the weekends
Please include any additional information that you think would be useful in helping us to evaluate your proposal.
Application by: sb2702
What is your project, and what problem does it solve?
If you are a casual user who just wants to upscale a few videos it's surprisingly frustrating. There are paid tools like Topaz Labs which are excellent but overkill for non-professional work, and open source projects like Video2X which require a bunch of setup & config. I'm building a quick, free tool for upscaling videos with AI right in the browser, no sign up or registration needed.
Link to public GitHub repo (if applicable)
https://github.com/sb2702/free-ai-video-upscaler
Link to demo website (if applicable)
https://free.upscaler.video/
Please describe in more detail why this proposal is valuable for the Livepeer ecosystem
This would be a new use case for the livepeer network, which should hopefully bring in an increasing amount of demand.
Please describe in details what your final deliverable for this project will be.
I launched a basic MVP and have gotten ~300 users per day organically.
I want to do some basic SEO and spread the word on reddit product hunt etc... to grow past 10k MAU.
I also want to develop some more powerful AI Upscaling models (like RealESRGAN) into the product
With those, I think the product would be ready for commercialization.
How will this deliverable benefit the Livepeer ecosystem?
This would be a new use case for the livepeer network, which should hopefully bring in an increasing amount of demand.
Please break up your development work into a clear set of milestones
Getting the software ready for production and monetization, including internationalization and proper monitoring and reporting tools (sentry, segment), as well as promoting it on various forums
Development of light versions of RealESRGan (or a similar network), tuned for real-life video content, implemented in https://github.com/sb2702/websr, and in turn deployed in the free product: https://github.com/sb2702/free-ai-video-upscaler
Development of light versions of RealESRGan (or a similar network), tuned for real-life video content, implemented in https://github.com/sb2702/websr, and in turn deployed in the free product: https://github.com/sb2702/free-ai-video-upscaler
What is the total amount requested (in USD)?
5000
Specify your team's long-term plans to maintain this software and upgrade it over time
A main goal for pursuing the dual goal of monetization and open source is in order to (1) obtain help from the open source community for identifying and fixing issues with the software and (2) Obtaining resources to be able to help with maintenance and development of the software.
Please describe (in words) your team's relevant experience, and why you think you are the right team to build this project. You can cite your team's prior experience in similar domains, doing similar dev work, individual team members' backgrounds, etc.
I'm the developer of https://github.com/sb2702/websr, one of very few people who understand how to implement AI Upscaling on the web. I previously had my own startup called Vectorly, which also offered a similar AI Upscaling WebSDK, before we pivoted and were then later acquired by my current employer.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/928633823?t=0h37m11s
https://medium.com/vectorly/adding-ultra-efficient-ai-filters-into-your-video-conferencing-app-with-vectorly-and-aws-chime-3ae2c9b563f1
Who is your target user group? How do you plan on getting your users to use this?
Casual users who are just looking to have some videos lying around to upscale. I previously developed a Web SDK for running AI Upscaling on videos in the browser. There were 10k+ unique monthly visitors to the website. After interviewing some users, I found out they were casual users looking to upscale some videos. Users are already searching for this on Google, this project aims to cater to them.
How did you learn about the Livepeer Grants Program?
Met Shannon at Demuxed
Was this project started at a hackathon or another web3 event? Which one?
N/A, side project I started working on the weekends
Please include any additional information that you think would be useful in helping us to evaluate your proposal.