1) Portrait Mode
Taking photos with our phone has come a long way since Sharp bulk sms ireland launched the first camera phone, the “J-Phone” in 2000 (it’s worth reading the comments on the article for some entertainment). We can now shoot incredibly high-quality pictures and videos without the need for bulky camera equipment. One of the trends in recent years has seen many top-end cameras include two rear-cameras in order to offer a portrait mode that can achieve the “ bokeh” effect (Japanese for blur) in which the subject is in focus and the background nicely blurred. However, in the future, we may see this switch again, and instead, an AI camera based on Machine Learning (ML) algorithms may replicate the effect. The Google Pixel 2 is one such phone already using this. These algorithms get smarter over time and have been “trained” to detect which part of the image is the subject in order to then blur the background.
Portrait photo of a woman at a funfair Figure 1: A "bokeh" effect (Japanese for "blur") is a key part of a phone's portrait mode.
2) Image Enhancing
Next, we turn to the subject of image processing. Artificial Intelligence’s power doesn’t stop as soon as we take a photo! Traditionally, if a photo is in JPEG format, trying to scale the photo up will usually lead to an unsharp and blurry image. Once again, AI, and in particular Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), appears to offer a solution. “ Let’s Enhance” uses CNNs which have been trained on a huge library of images so that when you upload an image, it is capable of detecting certain features (e.g. a wall, or skin) and adds extra detail to the image. In this way, it can scale a JPEG image up to 4x without losing quality. Why not try it out for yourself?
3) Capturing Daily Life
In October 2017, tech giants Google announced “ Google Clips”, a wearable camera that takes the potential of AI to another level.
