Google Pixel 2 's greatest camera in history History of the greatest camera Technical secrets directly to Google developers questioning and amazing movies released

Technical YouTuberNat and FriendsHowever, the newly released "Google Pixel 2"Is mounted inDxOMark scoreI've released a movie showing how I heard the developers of Google directly about what kind of technology the strongest camera of "98" was developed.

How Google Built the Pixel 2 Camera - YouTube


As just recorded, 'Google Pixel 2' has the highest smartphone camera ever recorded, as recorded by the highest "98" on the DxOMark score. What kind of technology is packed in the camera?


First of all we will focus on the "hardware" of the camera.


The most important challenge for smartphone cameras is "size".


As smartphones become slimmer, the size of the camera has also been reduced, and cameras are now being stored in a space equivalent to one blueberry.


This is the camera sensor part of Google Pixel 2.


Looking at the main camera from the outside of the terminal, it seems that there is only one lens ... ...


Actually six lenses are superimposed.


"The Google Pixel 2 camera has a strange shape lens and dual shades to compensate for the distortion called" aberration "in a small space," said Google's computational photography Team leader Mark Levoy.


In addition, Isaac Reynolds who is the product manager of Pixel camera will also explain.


When the lens part of the camera sensor is pushed with your finger, it is made to be able to move it, it seems that a motor is mounted in it.


Fine adjustment of the lens making full use of this motor, focusing on various things in the perspective ... ....



It is also possible to move the camera itself to the left and right finely.


Next, about the sensor part of the camera.


As we expand the sensor, it is divided into small pixels ......


This pixel converts the light into an electrical signal to create a picture of the digital data.


Suk Han Lim talks about the camera sensor.


"Although the camera sensor of Google Pixel 2 is 12 megapixels, it is said that each pixel is divided into left and right, and in reality there are twice the number of pixels." That's what Google says "dual pixel sensor".


Next, about "image processing".


The photographed pictures are not shown to the user as they are but various image processing is given. When checking the data taken directly from the sensor, it seems that it becomes dark and greensy as a whole like the following. Of course, image processing is done not only by Google Pixel 2 but also by all digital cameras. In the case of Google Pixel 2, there seems to be about 30 to 40 image processing steps.


For Nat and Friends, the first process in image processing seemed to be particularly interesting. The camera sensor has a physical color filter. This is like a check pattern of red, blue and green, and using these, the camera of Google Pixel 2 expresses all colors.


There are red, blue and green filters, and the green filter has twice the red and blue. Many green filters are because human eyes are more sensitive to green.


By overlaying the red, blue and green filters on the data generated by the sensor, we will bring the picture closer to the actual color.



The first step in this image processing is called "demosaicing".


After that, various image processing such as removing noise and sharpening the whole is done ... ...


Finally a high-definition image is generated. These processes are done on the hardware side, but as the camera gradually approaches the computer, a lot of processing is done on the software side as well.


About that processing, which is done on the software side.


Two features of Google Pixel 2 are "HDR +" and "Portrait mode".


Google Pixel 2, which became stronger in shooting in the dark, is able to express beautiful and dark parts beautifully with one picture with "HDR +".





This is because I make an image by averaging ten different pictures (too dark or too bright).


It will combine to make one excellent photo from multiple photos.


If there is an obstructive element in the picture, it is also possible to erase it.



"Even if you take a picture in a very dark place, you can make it a very nice picture by averaging multiple captures," Revoy said.





Similarly, beautiful pictures are generated in photographs taken in bright.


The story changes and I want to pay attention here, the condition of the blur of the background. If the depth of field is shallow, it makes it easier to blur except the part that is in focus.


The portrait mode of Google Pixel 2 is that it is easy to reproduce such a blur condition.


Yael Pritch Keainan, the leader of the portrait mode team, talks about the portrait mode of Google Pixel 2.


Normal smartphone cameras have small components and can not produce blur like the portrait mode of Google Pixel 2. Then, what will happen to a picture of a normal smartphone camera sharply reflects to the background other than the subject. In portrait mode of Google Pixel 2, it seems that combining machine learning and depth mapping technology creates beautiful blur.


To make it possible for Google Pixel 2 to be able to judge whether the subject is a subject or not for each pixel ......


It seems that learning has been repeated from millions of photographs using a neural network.


This makes it possible to distinguish only the foremost subject ... ...


You will be able to blur other backgrounds.


Speaking of the following photos ......


You can now apply masking to the human figure ... ...


That's why I can only blur the background. However, there are times when the blurring becomes unnatural with this.



So I looked at Google Pixel 2's "Dual Pixel Sensor".


A dual pixel sensor is one that you can see two different worlds with one eye, if you can talk about it in humans. For an actual camera, you can shoot two different images with one lens.


Using this we measure the depth of the picture.


The depth map generated by this. By changing the way of blurring the background based on this depth map, more natural blur can be produced.


In portrait mode you can not only shoot people but also blur the background as if shot with macro lenses, so photography with smartphones should be more enjoyable.





If you actually take a picture using Google Pixel 2's portrait mode here ...


Like this. Certainly the background is blurred cleanly.


And lastly on "test and adjustment".


It is not an exaggeration to say that the high-performance camera of Google Pixel 2 was created by many tests and adjustments. Thousands of indicators are prepared for testing and adjustment, so if you change one element, you will need to adjust several factors accordingly.


What exactly did Google do the test, the autofocus


White balance


Color balance


It seems that tests that are divided for each element, such as resolution, are prepared.


Google Pixel 2 camera Andreas Bon Snyder down, who was responsible for the adjustment of, and "also would take weeks to get the one of the data set if there is no test and adjustment" comment.


The following items are for testing the image stabilizer function. It is possible to reproduce from relaxed shaking to violent shaking.


Thanks to this, Google Pixel 2's amazing optical camera shake correction has been realized. It is hard to understand in the image, but when you look at the movie, the quality of the movie has become staggering in the state where the camera shake correction is on and off.



For camera shake correction, images of several frames of the movie and a gyroscope are used. The information of the gyroscope seems to be used to know how the camera shoots the image while moving.


It is a camera of Google Pixel 2 packed with various technologies like this, weighing only 0.003 pounds (about 1.36 grams), it is surprising that it is only as heavy as a paper clip.


In addition, using movies and movies shot with Google Pixel 2 cameras, movies that show "What kind of photos / movies can be taken with Google Pixel 2" summarized with no editing or processing of coloring are released You can see how exactly the camera of Google Pixel 2 is finished.

Google Pixel 2 Camera Test / Epic Road Trip - YouTube