Smart Memories Releases Checklist for Scanning Family Photos Ahead of Chuseok

Smart Memories, a digitization brand operated by KVS Company, released a "5-point Checklist for Family Photo Archiving" on the 23rd, summarizing items to check when organizing or scanning old family photos ahead of Chuseok. The purpose is to not only focus on the resolution or image quality of the photos but also to preserve information regarding the people, the time of shooting, the location, and the circumstances at the time.

Smart Memories viewed that even if old photos are transferred to digital format, information about who the people in the photos are, or when and where they were taken, can become difficult to verify as time passes. They explained that periods like Chuseok, when families gather in one place, are appropriate times to open albums together and organize the memories contained in the photos. From a reporter's perspective, photo preservation is closer to the task of leaving the context of the record rather than simple file organization. As digitization progresses, the preservation of original information inevitably becomes more important.

The checklist is presented in five points. First is the method of writing down the names of the people in the photos along with their family relationships. Second is leaving the period of shooting, such as "late 1980s," "first child's first birthday party," or "around elementary school entrance," even if the exact date is unknown. Third is a method of recording the location and the situation at the time, such as "family trip," "60th birthday," or "graduation ceremony." Fourth is to maintain the order and classification organized in albums or photo envelopes as much as possible, and fifth is to keep the original photos even after digitization.

Smart Memories also introduced actual work cases. Recently, there was a case where a customer in their 70s entrusted several dozen years' worth of photo albums and thousands of family photos all at once, and they noted that some cases involve sending photos divided by family, year, or event in zipper bags or with numbers and memos attached. If customers have pre-established classification criteria, the company maintains them while saving them into digital folders. Additionally, they stated that they provide both the original scanned copies and basic corrected versions, and in a case involving classroom photos from about 40 years ago, they improved color and visibility through AI-based post-processing.

Cho Gyeong-in, CEO of KVS Company, said, "While the color or clarity of a photo can be improved to some extent through technology, the family memories that tell us who the people in the photo are are difficult to restore once time has passed." She added, "Even though photos can be scanned, the family's memories cannot be scanned." She continued, "In the age of AI, it is important to distinguish and keep the original and the corrected results, and to record the context of the photos together."

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