Good artists copy and great artists steal. Have you heard this phrase? Despite what is happening in the world of high technologies in general and smartphones in particular, it seems that stealing from competitors has become the norm. It remains only to understand where the line between 'copy' and 'steal' is. This time it excelled Xiaomi, which took from Google a useful feature that was the hallmark of 'pixels' two years ago. Was it worth it, what will it give the company and is it possible to do this at all? They won't figure this out without you and me. Let's discuss all this and understand what the Chinese should have done.
You can 'borrow' a lot from Google. For example, a camera.
New feature Xiaomi
Recently there was information that Xiaomi is working on an interesting function for the camera of their smartphones. This is not a new feature that a Chinese company has come up with (yes, there are). It is a copy of what Google applied to its Pixel a couple of years ago. Then the function was called 'Top Shot'.
In the case of a Chinese company and the reincarnation of a new-old function, it will be called 'AI Shutter'. In general, the name means about the same, based on photographic terminology, but you must admit that Google sounds much more appetizing. But there is now a fashionable combination of letters AI, which usually means artificial intelligence.
The discovery of such an opportunity is based on the beta version of the application MIUI Camera, which was thoroughly analyzed by the XDA developers. The application contains traces of the very function that the search giant previously noted. The developers realized that this function almost completely copies what was in Google Camera.
So far, everything in the application is spelled out in Chinese, but few people find it difficult to make a translation. If at ease, the translation is 'Choose the best shot automatically when you press the shutter button'.
The camera Xiaomi will be even better with the new feature.
Artificial intelligence for photos
To implement the function, artificial intelligence was attracted, which should offer the best picture that was taken. True, one must also understand whether he can do everything right and choose really what is needed. For some reason, I have a lot more trust in Google. You can dispute this point of view, as usual, in our Telegram chat.
In any case, when you press the shutter button, you get several shots at once, among which the automatic will choose the best one. Further it will already be clear what will happen in the end. The main thing is that it does not get worse and you do not lose the very photo that you could have done better than automatic.
The main focus of Best Shot Selection is when someone blinks while taking a photo. This is unpleasant, but after taking several shots, you can choose the best one and avoid such a defect. Okay, if you notice it right away and can take the picture again (although sometimes you won't be able to get those emotions a second time), but most often this is discovered later.
How Best Shot Selection Works Xiaomi
The function of burst shooting has long been present in almost all smartphones and it is this function that underlies the above functions. It's just that the automation does everything for you by itself and you will not need to hold down the shutter button to get the very additional shots from which the automation will choose. And the pictures will not take up much space, since only one of them will be saved at once and you will not have to select manually which one to save.
If you take a series of photos, then a lot of space will be required – the excess must be removed.
I don’t know about you, but I often have whole series of photographs that are saved in large numbers and then I have to go in and clean them separately. Not to say that it is very difficult, but it takes time. You must at least go in, view everything, select the one you need, and only then delete the excess. And if there is not enough memory in the smartphone, this can become a real problem that will require urgent solutions somewhere on vacation.
When the camera Xiaomi can choose the best shots
While there is no official confirmation of where and whether such a function will appear at all. At the same time, the logic suggests that you can expect it already in one of the assemblies MIUI 12, on which the company is currently working Xiaomi. The beta build, which is coming soon, already exists, so we can get an idea of what it will look like when it starts shipping to owners of compatible smartphones.
Got a new camera here?
However, there are possible scenarios in which the function copied from Google will appear not in MIUI 12, but in the next generation – MIUI 13. If everything goes really bad, the probability of which is very high, will have to wait for the 14th version of the operating system.
In general, as you understand, we do not have exact dates, as usual, but there is an understanding that Xiaomi liked another someone else's work that she wants to implement in her device. Of course, there is a chance that the company will not succeed at all, but you can also roll out a conditionally working function, which will be finalized over time. Let's see what the Chinese manufacturer does.