
Super-resolution on the Pixel 3 - Jyaif
https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/10/see-better-and-further-with-super-res.html
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skykooler
I find it interesting that this tech is only just becoming available for
flagship phones. It seems to be the same algorithm that BlessN900 was using
for the Nokia N900, back in 2010:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20100903131550/http://blessn900....](https://web.archive.org/web/20100903131550/http://blessn900.com:80/)

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swampthinker
In retrospect, the N900 was such a visionary product. Maybe not as much as the
Palm Pre, but close to it IMO.

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alphabettsy
In what way other than the camera? Nokia flagships like this, the N95, N8 and
more in that generation had some excellent cameras. The N900 had a resistive
touchscreen at the same time the iPhone 3GS and Nexus One were available. The
OS was a blessing and a curse.

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skykooler
One nice thing about the N900's resistive touchscreen is that it was pressure-
sensitive. This was great for drawing apps (notably MyPaint), and I haven't
really seen a similar drawing experience on a phone apart from Apple's Force
Touch.

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alphabettsy
True. Ability to use with gloves as well. Apple could probably make the Apple
Pencil work with iPhones, but it probably wouldn’t be worth the hassle.

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border43
I'm wondering why this is exclusive to Pixel 3 and not made available to Pixel
2 owners? If it's an algorithm that stiches together many images, Pixel 2
should be able to do this as well. The Pixel 2 camera already meshes together
many images when you take photos, and already gives users the ability to take
"motion" photos.

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jordanthoms
Google is actually backporting a quite a lot of Pixel 3 functionality to the
older phones - e.g. night sight (which makes a enormous difference for photos
taken in less than ~3 lux), call screening, adjustable blur. (Full list at
[https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/10/13/pixel-3-features-
co...](https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/10/13/pixel-3-features-coming-older-
pixel-phones-will-remain-exclusive/) )

It's pretty generous actually, Apple and Samsung rarely backport marquee
features. I figure Google is trying to build up loyalty amongst Pixel and
Pixel 2 owners so that they stay with the brand.

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Doxin
> I figure Google is trying to build up loyalty amongst Pixel and Pixel 2
> owners so that they stay with the brand.

As a Pixel owner: it's working.

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jordanthoms
As a nexus/pixel user since the Galaxy Nexus I'd say so too :)

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21
Canon/Nikon should put an Android phone into their cameras. You could get
these kind of features/easy instagramming/connection capabilities starting
from a much higher photo quality base.

Keep their native interface, but also allow switching to a much slower (in the
sense of many touches required) but much more capable Android mode.

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detaro
I think an actually working quick way of getting photos transferred to a phone
out of the box would be the better step. That stuff's optimized for a phone,
use a phone and keep it out of the camera, which likely will have a longer
lifetime and adds a bunch of other constraints.

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21
But then you wouldn't have features like this one, which requires merging
multiple close in time images. Since the professional camera makers assume
that all post-processing will happen on a computer at a later time, they don't
work on in-camera features like this.

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londons_explore
A burst of 150 raw frames all within 1 second even the top end slr's can't do,
mostly because they don't have enough RAM to store all those raw frames, and
because sd cards aren't fast enough.

Without all those raw images, you won't be able to do this kind of
postprocessing after the fact.

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throwanem
You're right that SD cards aren't fast enough. That's why high-end DSLRs
support the much faster XQD standard. There are no DSLRs (and precious few if
any still cameras, period) that can do 150fps, but 15-20fps isn't at all
uncommon in professional lines, and most cameras that support that frame rate
also have deep enough buffers and fast enough XQD interfaces that they can
shoot raw at full framerate for 10-15 seconds before they fill the buffer and
slow down.

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possibleworlds
Whilst this is genuinely amazing work and very exciting, I would just like to
point out a few things.

The comparable tech in digital cameras is not limited to tripods and static
scenes as stated, some cameras can do this hand-held.

Shifting pixels 4 times results in increased detail, however Olympus and
Panasonic’s approach is to shift the sensor 8 times in half-pixel increments,
resulting in dramatically increased resolution as well.

The main issue with the current implementations in digital cameras is still
objects in motion, which camera makers are trying to solve in-software with
mixed results.

If rumors are to be believed there are advances on the way for this tech in
digital cameras, particularly in relation to shutter speed and perhaps low
light, but I don’t think you’ll see this trickle down to cheaper models for a
few years yet.

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johnhenry
"Enhance".

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amelius
Too bad this is from Google, so I can't use this; neither at work nor at home.

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seattle_spring
Do you live in a totalitarian state?

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SirFatty
I think that's what the OP is trying to avoid.

