Tecno, a Chinese technology and smartphone specialist, has revealed a trio of new advancements powered by artificial intelligence – including a new AI imaging "brain" that promises new possibilities for mobile imaging.
In addition to producing some of the best camera phones, Tecno has also doubled down on technological innovations in recent years – including partnering with the University of Leeds to develop Universal Tone, a multi-skin-tone imaging technology intended to improve representation by capturing unbiased data, rather than relying on existing pools of data (white skin-skewing) for its AI.
The headline feature announced by the company, at its annual Future Lens event in China, is Tecno Image Matrix – "a new 'brain' for AI-powered imaging that reimagines the whole imaging process".
This system promises "a fully intelligent process" through four stages: the Hardware Foundation Layer (comprising camera, display, sensor and system-on-chip), the Deconstruction Layer (ten imaging algorithms, from noise reduction to stabilization), Engine reconstruction Layer (featuring an Algorithm Process Stack, featuring four AI engines including Universal Tone) and the Application Layer (which synergizes each of the engines).
In addition to powering new AI functions for its devices – including AI Shooting Quality++, Portrait Master, Video Master, AI Snap and AI Image Studio – the company also debuted a pair of additional artificial intelligence processes.
New sensors and dual prisms
ABOVE: Watch EVS Dynamic Snapshot explained
The first of Tecno's dedicated technologies complements the traditional CMOS sensor with a new EVS sensor. This 'event-based vision sensor' seeks to solve the issue of blurred subjects when photographing fast-moving genres such as wildlife and sports.
Where a normal sensor simply captures pixels on a frame-by-frame basis, the EVS sensor focuses only on moving subjects – exclusively capturing pixels that exhibit motion data. The new EVS Dynamic Snapshot function promises crystal clear images, thanks to this ability to capture continuous motion trajectory information combined with the readout from the conventional CMOS sensor.
The company's other new technology is Tap Any Zoom Dual Prism Telephoto – essentially a dual periscope lens system, powered by intelligent algorithms, offering "the ability to capture images up to 14 times the zoom of a standard 125mm focal length lens."
Among other things this powers what looks to be an incredible image stabilization system, by combining lens shift optical stabilization with the dual periscopes' ultra-wide swing angle – compensating for shake even at extreme zoom ranges. It also facilitates a telephoto sweep feature to generate 400MP stitched images, which can even be reframed afterwards.
With most advancements in mirrorless camera technology seeming limited to a few more megapixels, slightly better AF or half a stop more in-body image stabilization, I'm very excited to see these kinds of breakthroughs in the mobile imaging sector. If Tecno can realize these new technologies in its next generation of handsets, this could be a real tipping point in terms of what camera phones can do.
ABOVE: Watch Tap Any Zoom Dual Prism Telephoto in action
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