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Qualcomm promises video and photo enhancements for smartphones with a Snapdragon 888 processor.
Qualcomm
With its Snapdragon 888 processor, Qualcomm wants to take its next phone one step further into the modern era of photography with new speed and new artificial intelligence.
The new chip adds a third image processing module that enables flagship smartphones to handle three simultaneous video streams, all in 4K resolution with high dynamic range images. And for photos, the chip now uses artificial intelligence training to better judge the focus and brightness of photos, said Judd Heap, vice president of product management at Qualcomm.
Qualcomm detailed the capabilities of the chip camera on Wednesday as part of an event to introduce the Snapdragon 888, the company’s new high-end processor, Qualcomm’s effort to keep Android phones competitive with Apple iPhones.
Taking photos and videos is one of the most important parts of using the phone. It’s also one of the easiest ways that phone makers can showcase new skills, persuading consumers that there is actually a reason to upgrade a good two- or three-year-old phone. So it makes sense for Qualcomm to invest in new photo and video features, and to increase the number of dedicated electronic chips.
The main photographic video work of the Snapdragon 888 is carried out in a module called an image signal processor. Qualcomm’s flagship phone chip previously had two of those modules, but now it has three, called Spectra 580. That allows 888-powered phones to do more things at once, driving 2.7 billion pixels per second through its process. processing.
Qualcomm doesn’t make phones, but companies like Samsung, LG Electronics, and Google use their chip brains. Among other enhancements coming to the 888 is built-in 5G network support for fast mobile data transfer that doesn’t drain your batteries as fast. It’s not yet clear how fast the new chip will be, but Apple’s A-series of phone processors have outperformed Qualcomm’s chips in speed tests for years.
Snapdragon 888 video enhancements
Taking three videos at a time can be useful on modern high-end phones with wide-angle, ultra-wide and telephoto cameras. Keeping all three video streams live means the phone can switch views without stuttering or video lag. With Arcsoft software, which licenses its technology for use in phone manufacturers’ camera applications, a video capture could automatically switch between different cameras so that the person recording always fills the frame without having to manually manipulate zoom levels.
Last year’s Snapdragon 865 chips could record 4K video at 120 frames per second, a useful ability for recording slo-mo video played at 30fps. With the 888, you will be able to play video at 120 fps for greater fluidity, an idea borrowed from the world of games.
The 4K HDR feature should help you shoot video in challenging lighting with both dark and bright details. HDR images are often generated by merging three images taken at dark, normal, and bright exposure levels. One particular change with the 888 chip is support for an HDR technology called staggered images that allows an image sensor to capture those three frames much more quickly, Heap said. That speed reduces ghosting problems that can arise when the subject moves between frames.
Snapdragon 888 AI photography intelligence
The 888 also adds new artificial intelligence technology to photos. AI these days refers to machine learning algorithms inspired by the interconnected neurons that make up the human brain. The key to making this technology work is training the system with good data to work well once used in a shipping product.
AI now directs focus and exposure options on 888-powered phones, Heap said. Qualcomm trained its AI autofocus system with virtual reality headsets that track where humans are looking when different images are shown to them.
With that and the new 10-bit HDR support, “all photos will look better,” Heap boasted.
Also coming with the Snapdragon 888 includes a new low-light architecture designed to enhance photos captured in low-light conditions. And 888-powered phones will be able to capture a burst of up to 120 photos in a row, potentially helpful in finding the right shot in a high-speed action sequence.
The Snapdragon 888 also supports crypto technology from a startup called TruePic designed to reveal any changes in the pixels of a photo and the time and place it was taken, an idea that could help in an age where confidence in the authenticity of a photo can be low. Don’t expect every phone or camera app to support the technology by default, but it could come in handy in situations like taking photos of your car after an accident. Adobe, The New York Times, Truepic, Twitter, Qualcomm and others support the technology through a consortium called the Content Authenticity Initiative.
Expect improvements in raw photos
Although the 888 fuses multiple frames to enhance the photo and video, Qualcomm does not offer an equivalent of Apple’s ProRaw format that now comes in iPhone 12 Pro models or Google’s computational raw format that has been around for two years. Those formats offer photo enthusiasts greater flexibility than JPEG and HEIC images, while taking advantage of HDR and other processing abilities.
However, Qualcomm is interested in moving in that direction.
“I want to start enabling a professional ecosystem” where people can use the same photo editing software that they are used to with DSLR cameras, Heap said. “It is very important to me”.
