It was pretty clear that Google understood the importance of selfies to phone buyers with the Pixel 3. Why else would it persist with a single lens on the back, while upgrading to two on the front?
The results were great as ever, but now they’re getting even better thanks to a little help from the AI behind the now defunct Google Clips. Today, Google has announced a new mode for the Pixel camera: Photobooth.
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Simply, the mode will save you the trouble of lining everything up by taking its shot when it judges everything to be just right. Generally speaking, it’s looking for three things: a steady hand, open eyes and appealing expressions. When it gets all three, it’ll snap and the results should be the optimum selfie.
You can see how the AI is working with a white bar on the left-hand side of the screen which reacts to your actions and shows you how close it is to snapping. So it’s not a complete black box.
But because we humans have developed all kinds of strange and ridiculous poses we want recorded for posterity for some reason, Google’s AI has adapted too. Now it’ll recognise five different expressions on top of a nice toothy grin: “smiles, tongue-out, kissy/duck face, puffy-cheeks, and surprise.” Plus it’ll be on hand to capture kisses, too.
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“We’re excited by the possibilities of automatic photography on camera phones,” Google’s engineers write in a blog post introducing the new mode. “As computer vision continues to improve, in the future we may generally trust smart cameras to select a great moment to capture.”
Are you happy to entrust your selfies to artificial intelligence, or do you prefer the human touch? Let us know what you think on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
