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Apple has purchased UK-based photography company Spectral Edge, reports Bloomberg. The Spectral Edge website is now defunct, but the company had developed a mathematical technique for improving photographic imagery in real-time.

Created in 2014 from academic research at the University of East Anglia, Spectral Edge's algorithm is able to enhance low-light smartphone images, something that could be potentially useful for Night Mode and other photographic capabilities in future iPhones.

iphone11procameradesign_trans-800x929.png

Spectral Edge's technology captures an infrared shot and then blends it with a standard photo to make images crisper and to improve color accuracy. Bloomberg suggests that Apple could use Spectral Edge's machine learning techniques to further improve the quality of iPhone photos.

In court filings, Apple corporate lawyer Peter Denwood has been named a director of Spectral Edge, with other advisors and board members now terminated. According to Bloomberg, the documents indicate that Apple is now in control of the company.

There is no word on what Apple paid for Spectral Edge, and Apple did not respond to Bloomberg's requests for comment.

Article Link: Apple Buys UK-Based Company 'Spectral Edge' to Bolster iPhone's Photographic Capabilities
 
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Jandalf

macrumors member
Oct 27, 2016
74
58
Berlin, Germany
Where does „Beautygate“ start and end?
I hope improvements in the optics will continue so we don’t See pictures AI assumes are the real thing...
(I imagine a scene in some utopia-ID Check at a spacecraft boarding counter: „sorry, but your real face doesn’t match the rendered one we have of you in the database...“?)
 

SDJim

macrumors 6502a
Aug 4, 2017
672
2,344
San Diego, CA
Even if it's all software, you know Apple will tell us we need some future A-series CPU to take advantage of this new tech
That was literally my immediate fear upon seeing this article... Since it's supposedly software-based, I would love this to come to my 11 Pro via update, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
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b0fh

macrumors regular
May 14, 2012
152
62
Even if it's all software, you know Apple will tell us we need some future A-series CPU to take advantage of this new tech
You *DID* read the article, where they mentioned RGB-IR sensors, right? The whole article was about using IR to help make better pictures... And I don't think the current cameras have IR sensors in them...

On the smartphone front, Thomas says the company is waiting for consumer hardware to catch up — noting that RGB-IR sensors “haven’t yet begun to deploy on smartphones on a great scale”.
 

J InTech82

macrumors 6502
Aug 10, 2013
375
353
That was literally my immediate fear upon seeing this article... Since it's supposedly software-based, I would love this to come to my 11 Pro via update, but I'm not holding my breath.

Mine as well haha
 

The Oak

macrumors 6502
Nov 12, 2013
371
249
On the flip side ... it could be Apply does something similar already ... and purchased them for patent and IP protection from future potential lawsuits.
 

Greenmeenie

macrumors 68020
Jan 14, 2013
2,056
3,167
Theres only so big they can make the camera sensors in such a thin phone. So future improvements will have to come from software improvements & other ways. I am sure this upcoming laser scanning will help create shallower & more accurate depth of field. Low light is still the big hurdle. But they made tremendous progress in the iphone 11 pro. Looking forward to what the iphone 12 pro will bring in terms of photography.
 

Jakewilk

macrumors 6502
Jul 21, 2014
391
885
Even if it's all software, you know Apple will tell us we need some future A-series CPU to take advantage of this new tech

The iphone 11 pro uses a TON of horsepower to run the camera app with all the computation going on behind the scenes. Wouldn’t surprise me at all if they did need more headroom to fit a whole extra layer in to keep the UX from becoming choppy and laggy.
 

bsimpsen

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2012
79
105
In the 2Lux section of that demo video (@0:38) , the male doll's brown suit, the little policeman, the apple and other things are still in color for the standard view, but have gone to B&W for the "improved" view. The standard view looks brighter over most of the image as well. They could have done a much better job of demonstrating the technology. It can't work as bad as shown in the demo.
 

FlyingDutch

macrumors 65816
Aug 21, 2019
1,319
1,205
Eindhoven (NL)
Even if it's all software, you know Apple will tell us we need some future A-series CPU to take advantage of this new tech
Software runs on A-series SoC, so the fact it is software actually is the reason you need better CPU, especially when you are speaking about real-time computation.
[automerge]1576217041[/automerge]
I thought the iPhone 11 Pro already got substantial improvements in low-light photography.
It did.
 

LittleChief

macrumors member
Dec 7, 2009
48
63
UK
Where does „Beautygate“ start and end?
I hope improvements in the optics will continue so we don’t See pictures AI assumes are the real thing...
(I imagine a scene in some utopia-ID Check at a spacecraft boarding counter: „sorry, but your real face doesn’t match the rendered one we have of you in the database...“?)

Don’t be silly... we’ll have advanced on to something like ‘Colon ID’ by then! ?
 
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rp2011

macrumors 68020
Oct 12, 2010
2,319
2,626
nature has shown it is most definitely possible capturing great images without multiple massive lenses. Eyeballs prove there is room for improvement.
 
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BvizioN

macrumors 603
Mar 16, 2012
5,701
4,819
Manchester, UK
Even if it's all software, you know Apple will tell us we need some future A-series CPU to take advantage of this new tech

Software and hardware integration with each other for a great experience. If it is not great, I wouldn't want it. That's what Apple tries to do, while the rest will try to throw all the **** ignoring the user experience.
 
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