AI And Cameras: A Peek Into The Future

I always thought of AI as an entity with two eyes—a camera, and the Internet—with the pair comes a fresh visual perspective alongside a plethora of applications. The talk of AI has always been intriguing. It’s proved itself to be a disruptive tool across diverse industries, and has made its way to the lifestyles of everyday consumers. Artificial Intelligence, they say, forces people to break habits of the repetitive, and to grow both in skill and in talent. It’s been around for awhile, has become ubiquitous, yet its relevance as catalyst for innovation has yet to fade. Although not apparent to the average consumer, AI has actually made its way to our everyday devices, especially those equipped with cameras.

- Gerry Gaviola

Birthed from the IT industry, AI is branch of computer science that attempts to let a device function, think, and learn like a human. Rather than simply executing automated tasks, AI goes beyond, integrating machine learning into the process. Like a human, it adapts and learns from analyzing different patterns. Enhancement is the key of AI as it helps individuals, and in this case, photographers and videographers focus on what is most necessary—composition—rather than wasting time tweaking camera settings, or hours in post-production software.

AI and phone cameras: the future is now!

Before delving in photography or videography use, let’s take a glance at one of the most practical uses of AI and cameras in terms of phone security. Back in 2017, Apple released the iPhone X, and with it, a new biometric security feature, Face ID. Now, there are four main components of this technology that makes unlocking your phone seamlessly yet securely; the Dot Projector that flashes 30,000 invisible dots on a face to create a unique visual map; the Flood Illuminator which flashes infrared light to a face to aid facial recognition in the dark; and the Infrared Camera which reads the dot pattern, captures an infrared image, and sends the data to Apple’s Bionic chip. Technicalities aside, Face ID is amazing feat. A new natural security that uses your face as a password is certainly a game changer, is it not? Combined with AI, Face ID becomes attention and history aware—it adapts over time, and will work even if you put glasses on, grow a beard, or naturally age. And although face unlocking has been around for a while, nothing of this level of safety and security has been brought to a mass-produced user friendly product. Meeting standards of high-security biometrics, many, including banks and institutions, have integrated these with their respective mobile applications.