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Gcam, the computational photography project that powers the Google Pixel camera

196 pointsby PleaseHelpMeabout 8 years ago

19 comments

valineabout 8 years ago
&gt; So the team started to ask — what if we looked at this problem in an entirely new way? What if, instead of trying to solve it with better hardware, we could do it with smart software choices instead?<p>I feel like the lofty language takes something away from the article. It&#x27;s not like using software to improve image quality is anything new. The image stacking technique they describe isn&#x27;t particularly novel. I&#x27;ve done stuff like that for years. It even works on 3d renderings from a path tracer. Its cool their camera is fast and provides a nice ux when stacking images, but that&#x27;s only possible because of the cameras hardware.
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boulosabout 8 years ago
Sigh. I&#x27;m disappointed that this piece seemingly gives no credit to Andrew Adams, Jiawen (Kevin) Chen, and all the folks that made gcam happen. There isn&#x27;t even a mention of Halide...<p>Edit: just to be clear, I like Marc just fine, but I don&#x27;t see the point in excluding the team.<p>Disclosure: I work at Google and know the folks involved.
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kumarmabout 8 years ago
Surprised by Negative Tone of Comments.<p>I have been using PixelXL since launch and every one of my friends who looked at photos are amazed by the camera (Many of iPhone Users). PixelXL made me default photographer at parties (And fact that I can share Photos using Google Photos with everyone at Party).<p>Pixel Camera is amazing compared to any existing SmartPhone camera.<p>Side Note: The only issue I have with Pixel is that its easy to break glass.
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ipsum2about 8 years ago
This blog post is remarkably light on details. For the actual research paper behind the software in the Pixel camera app: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hdrplusdata.org&#x2F;hdrplus.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hdrplusdata.org&#x2F;hdrplus.pdf</a>
felixfurtakabout 8 years ago
Surely many of these improvements are simply due to the Sony Exmor sensor? HDR processing is only really possible when you have fast (and full resolution) burst mode available on the sensor.
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mihaifmabout 8 years ago
&gt; One direction that we’re pushing is machine learning<p>Is machine learning the answer to everything these days? Is it over-hyped...or should I start worrying that I don&#x27;t know anything about it (as a developer I mean).
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legoheadabout 8 years ago
Had an interesting&#x2F;cool moment with my Pixel at the theatre today. There was a line to get your picture taken in front of the show&#x27;s giant poster. The attendant would take your phone and snap a pic.<p>When the attendant used my phone, she couldn&#x27;t tell it took a picture -- because when you press the button it&#x27;s <i>instant</i>. She was so used to other phones taking a second or two before a picture was taken.
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srtjstjsjabout 8 years ago
Article does not deliver on the headline (of course). It says that X wrote software that became HDR+ , Google&#x27;s version of HDR.
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jakobeggerabout 8 years ago
There&#x27;s a lot of pressure on smartphone makers to make really good image processing software because they are extremely restricted hardware wise -- there&#x27;s just no space for a proper lens and a big chip. And it&#x27;s amazing how far they&#x27;ve gotten in the past few years. Phones are now better cameras than most point-and-shoots.<p>I wonder if there&#x27;s any chance that some of that amazing software makes it&#x27;s ways to pro cameras? It seems that camera companies can&#x27;t keep up.<p>For example, the autofocus and whitebalance on my phone is almost always spot-on and perfect. My &#x27;real&#x27; camera (a Fujifilm X100T) often gets the focus wrong, and the automatic white-balance is not as reliable. It seems like camera makers just can&#x27;t keep up on the software side.
ChuckMcMabout 8 years ago
[Heh, the cynic in me is amused when these things come out on the heel of a lot of bad news about Google.]<p>I think computational photography is perhaps the biggest change to picture taking since Ektachrome. Seriously it takes pictures with existing hardware that are better pictures and does it by applying some interesting science to the mechanisms in the pipeline. I&#x27;ve been very impressed with the results and how rapidly the camera comes up with the image after taking it. I wish my Canon SLR had this as part of its software load.
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Mindless2112about 8 years ago
Marc Levoy (who the article is about) gave a lecture series [1] at Google about digital photography.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PL7ddpXYvFXspUN0N-gObF1GXoCA-DA-7i" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;playlist?list=PL7ddpXYvFXspUN0N-gObF...</a>
iamleppertabout 8 years ago
I like how they have taken credit for implementing HDR along with a smartphone-sized burst camera.<p>This is purely a technical implementation and is not novel in almost any way.
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avipabout 8 years ago
Lots of PR-ish tone here. Image fusion is pretty standard in video cameras, it&#x27;s part of the imaging pipeline. The IP on that dates back 15-20 years.
dharma1about 8 years ago
It&#x27;s a step in the right direction for mobile photography but not really revolutionary. Exposure fusion and pixel alignment has been around for a long time.<p>Would like to see more options for tonemapping (really like ACR&#x27;s highlight&#x2F;shadow recovery), higher dynamic range sensors and most of all 10bit or raw video on mobile phones.<p>Halide is great btw
pasbesoinabout 8 years ago
Ok, since maybe Google people will be looking at this:<p>I have a Nexus 5x. The Google camera app recently, finally, received a revision that fixed some significant bugs, e.g. crashing on &quot;zoom out&quot;.<p>It also introduced ISO offset&#x2F;adjustment. However, the widget to make that adjustment appears only briefly, at the top of the screen, immediately after touching the screen -- to set a metering point or to zoom. This makes that control both difficult to trigger, at the top of the screen, and difficult to use with its small scale and position that leaves one&#x27;s finger obscuring the readout. On my 5x with a Pleson glass screen protector, the resulting value also tends to jump a bit as my finger is removed (1). Finally, the setting only remains for a matter of seconds, until the app clears any custom (i.e. via touch point) metering setting (2).<p>I like to adjust the ISO offset setting until I get the exposure I&#x27;m after on the screen. I wish the control was easier and always available to trigger, easier to use, and that the value set would persist at least until the shot is taken and preferably, or optionally, until it is manually changed back.<p>You finally gave me ISO offset control -- thank you! But the control is difficult to the point where I mostly don&#x27;t even try to use it.<p>The app update also introduced a widget along the right side that displays an ungradated meter of (digital) zoom level. Beyond seeing the relative zoom setting, this control doesn&#x27;t really do much that I find useful. (Actually, sometimes I find myself waiting for it to clear so that I can see my composition better.)<p>That widget position on the right side would be the perfect place to optionally display a touchable ISO offset scale. More real estate, making fine adjustments easier. Finger not in the way of seeing both the values and the shot, while adjusting it.<p>If not by default, then maybe something that could be selected in the options?<p>Friends really like my photos from the Nexus 5x. I&#x27;d love to have more-better controls when composing them. Thanks.<p>--<p>1. My zoom level can similarly jump a bit when I lift my fingers from the screen. I assume this is because of the screen protector, as opposed to the underlying phone&#x2F;app, and have come to live with it as the price for the screen protection. The jump in ISO offset, maybe because of the small size of its widget as well as its placement, is harder to control.<p>2. This momentary clearing was already happening before the app update. I like to take my time composing my shot, and this clearing already made doing so somewhat frustrating at times.
Ajedi32about 8 years ago
So it&#x27;s just the same HDR+ they&#x27;ve been using in Nexus devices for a long time now? They didn&#x27;t do anything special with the Pixel&#x27;s camera, specifically?
tambourine_manabout 8 years ago
Sorry to hijack the thread but I found your handle a bit disturbing.<p>What do you need help with?
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kttaabout 8 years ago
The surprising part about this is that X decided to go with Medium as their publishing platform.
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rmcfeeleyabout 8 years ago
WHO WROTE THIS?<p>--<p>CATHOLIC
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