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An AI camera is a camera that uses artificial intelligence to analyze and improve photos and videos automatically. On a phone, it recognizes the scene, faces, and objects, then uses computational photography (merging several frames) to sharpen detail, brighten low light, and create portrait blur, often matching results that once needed extra lenses or manual editing.
AI (artificial intelligence) is becoming so ubiquitous that it’s rare to spot a smartphone without some type of AI nowadays. “AI camera” is the new hot phrase that audiences keep hearing at the launch of the latest smartphones, especially the middle and high-end ones. For that reason alone, it’s worth knowing what exactly AI in cameras does and how it is benefiting numerous aspects of life – even law enforcement!
What Is AI Camera?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that tries to teach a computer to think, learn, and perform tasks like a human. Instead of simply being coded to do a particular job, high-powered electronic appliances are loaded with the power of AI, which does not simply instruct it to do a particular job, but actually programs it such that it learns and adapts to user’s behavior and patterns. AI cameras are simply cameras that use AI programs to wisely deal with images and videos.
Computational photography is usually the core of an AI-powered camera. The subject of computational photography is generally split into subsets of technology trying to mimic what humans do, such as voice recognition, voice-to-text composition, image/face recognition, computer vision, and machine learning.
What Makes AI Camera So Special?
That’s all good to know, but what’s the big deal with AI cameras? Well, these advanced cameras help to save time by smartly performing the requisite image processing/enhancement in real time, which would otherwise require hours of toiling with the image in commercial-grade editing software like Photoshop or Lightroom. Modern phones run these AI models on a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU), so the heavy lifting happens on the device itself in a fraction of a second, no cloud trip required.
Let us now take a deeper look into the reasons which makes AI cameras so powerful.
Face Recognition
If you own a modern iPhone, you are probably using the Face ID unlock feature every day. This face unlocking ability is actually an AI program. Aside from expensive iPhones, even budget Android smartphones now come with a face unlock feature. Face unlocking analyses the face of the end-user and remembers it. It even learns about changes in the face, so if you completely shave your long beard or go for a bald summer look after years of dreadlocks, it will still manage to recognize you and unlock your phone if you happen to be its owner. It learns about those changes so that your face doesn’t go unrecognized.
In fact, face recognition is fast becoming the de-facto authentication method for biometric applications. Assisted by depth-sensing sensors, the level of safety provided by this technology has met the expectations even in high-security settings and applications, such as banking. The development of secure runtime environments (programs and libraries) has led to growing trust in the technology at the user level, meaning that people are now happily accepting this tech in smartphones, not to mention the many companies working to implement this tech in other domains, including cars, homes, and surveillance applications.
Capability To Emulate Hardware
I’m not trying to promote Pixel, but the Google Pixel 3 was the phone that proved this point. And the astonishing fact is that it had only a single rear camera, not the multiple lenses that have become standard on flagship phones. Yet it still ranked among the best cameras you could buy. Where did this camera power come from? No prize for guessing, it’s because of the AI tech in the phone! Today’s flagships, from the latest Pixel to the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy, lean even harder on this approach, pairing the extra lenses with AI image processing to do the heavy lifting. Google has an enormous amount of data that has been accumulated over the years and artificial intelligence is dependent on the quantity of data. Google is miles ahead of its competitors, given its vast ocean of user data. This data helps the tech giant develop accurate computational algorithms that makes camera superpowerful; something other phones can only become when supplemented with additional hardware i.e., multiple camera lenses, specialized sensors etc.
Google Pixel uses a sophisticated AI technology that easily makes up for the smartphone’s lack of a dual lens. Its camera is not only able to produce the bokeh effect, but can also do some optical zooming. Although many smartphone cameras give the bokeh effect without additional lenses, being able to emulate an optical zoom without hardware is truly incredible.
The Top Shot feature by Google is another useful addition of AI. Suppose you want to take a group picture, but one person blinks. It seems like someone is always doing something in a group photo that makes it come out less than ideal. Maybe someone in the group shakes, squints their eyes against the sun, or perhaps an unwanted piece of fluff floats into the frame of the shot. Here, Top Shot AI from Google can salvage your photo by quietly capturing a burst of frames in the moments just before and after you press the shutter. When you snap a photo, Google’s camera software analyzes that window of frames on the device, scoring them for open eyes, smiles, and sharpness. It then recommends a better alternative shot so that you’re not stuck with a bunch of half-decent photos.
How AI Cameras Can Help In Controlling Gun Crime
I’ve talked a lot about AI-powered smartphone cameras, but even security cameras can benefit from AI too. In fact, a company called Athena Security has developed AI for cameras to spot guns and notify law enforcing authorities. The US continues to see a high number of gun shootings, making this kind of technology a priority for many schools, offices, and public venues. (In 2018, when this system first rolled out, the country had already recorded more than 200 mass shootings for the year.) This is where AI could help security staff spot a gunman before an attack begins.
AI for security cameras developed by Athena can recognize a wide range of guns and other deadly weapons that bad guys can carry clandestinely and later use to harm others. Whenever this AI-enabled camera spots a gun in the vicinity, it sends a notification to the business owner or nearby law enforcement office. As this system is cloud-based, it also sends streaming footage of the event to a computer database. In fact, this footage can be monitored via an app, so crime prevention can be taken mobile. The user can connect this AI-powered camera to other security systems, such as doors and elevators.
For example, if a gunman tries to enter premises where guns are prohibited, the entrance door can be locked automatically. This security system was installed at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster, Pennsylvania, back in 2018, with more than 30 cameras tied into the network. The company claims its system is 99% accurate, though it is worth noting that such detectors flag the shape of a weapon and cannot always tell a real firearm from a replica.
To conclude, AI is changing the way that cameras function. Whether it’s recognizing the authorized owner of a device, capturing vivid portrait photos, or spotting a concealed weapon before any violence can be committed, AI-boosted cameras can serve many purposes without requiring a pile of extra hardware components.
