It seems as though Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now being developed to be used in all facets of our lives, and the technology that has been creating a lot of buzz in the tech world recently is now available in your cameras as well. There has been a recent surge in the news and hype surrounding AI-powered cameras in mobile phones, and we will now look at this new development in smartphone technology.
Smartphones have become ubiquitous, to the extent that many people cannot do a multitude of daily tasks without their phones. They are the gadgets that are probably used the most on a daily basis, more than laptops, TVs or other electronics, and so it is fitting that tech companies are targeting smartphones for their next big developments and product launches. It is not just tech companies that are doing this either. For example, people can now play live casino games online through their phones, with the gameplay and graphics being as good, or even better than that on a laptop. There are gaming phones being launched, while photography nerds can find phones with cameras that would outdo most professional camera setups. AI-powered cameras are simply the next step in the evolution of mobile technology. So how does it work? AI helps improve picture quality, by automatically finding objects to enhance and process in the image based on the conditions and quality in which the image was taken. It also blurs the lines between image capture, enhancement and manipulation, while it is of great help during photo editing as well.
There are already various voice-recognition programs in the mainstream consumer world, with the likes of Siri, Alexa and Google Now all being used extensively on their respective phones as voice assistants. Now, AI can use these voice assistants to allow cameras to be voice-activated, which can then allow for a truly hands-free experience when needed. Another area where the technology is extremely useful, is in making up for the relative lack of zoom on smartphone camera lenses. AI uses computational photography to compensate for the lack of a physical zoom, and thus replicates optical zoom levels which are not normally seen on smartphones. We see one example of this in the Google Pixel 3, which has a single camera lens, but uses computational photography to replicate optical zoom and various other effects. There are newer phones, which blend multiple lenses and computational photography to create images with the depth of field and other lens effects which are only possible otherwise through larger cameras. Thus, it has allowed for high-quality images to be shot without having professional camera equipment, and so is a boon to photographers all over the world.
AI cameras are also capable of blending HDR images in bright light settings, switching to multi-image capture mode in low light, and creating a seamless zoom effect using the various camera modes. All of these features have led to many photographers only using their DSLR cameras when needed for professional shoots, for example, and we have even seen photoshoots for prestigious magazines which have been shot using only an iPhone, which just goes to show how advanced phone camera technology is nowadays.
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