LivingLens’s technology works in a similar way to that developed by The Big Sofa and Discuss.IO: it stores video content and uses an interactive transcript function to make videos keyword-searchable and quickly editable.

However LivingLens has also developed its own smartphone app – allowing clients to send assignments to research participants, so they can create videos in response to set tasks. Videos can then be uploaded directly to the LivingLens database for transcription and analysis.

The app is still several weeks away from launch, said Wong. However, the main LivingLens platform has already been soft-launched and is in use by companies, including the research agency Box Clever and the mobile phone company Talk Talk.

Wong flags several benefits of the system. For starters, he estimates that the editing functionality – a straightforward process of highlighting the video transcript and clicking the ‘make clip’ button – can save 80–90% of the time researchers would normally spend in the editing.

“Ten hours of content usually generates about 30 hours worth of work, to watch and edit down,” said Wong. “However, we think LivingLens can cut that down to about three-to-five hours.”

The keyword search functionality can also help companies reuse and generate more value from video created for older projects, said Wong, while companies like Talk Talk are using the platform as a way to engage senior executives in research projects, as they are able to go in and search for the topics that are of interest to them.

LivingLens can already be used in multiple languages, however Wong said the plan for next year is to make it possible for videos in one language to be read and edited in another. So, for example, an English-only speaker could compile video playlists of French consumers discussing products in their native tongue.

Wong said the company is also having “several conversations” with large research groups about taking the LivingLens platform global.