Apple has bought up a new startup, and the latest to join the company's portfolio is called Spectral Edge, which operates from the United Kingdom. The acquisition is known for its core technology of enhancing photos captured on a smartphone. It is expected that this feature will soon be seen in an upcoming iPhone model.
It appeared Spectral Edge caught the eye of the iPhone maker for the startup's use of artificial intelligence to make images more visually stunning. Specifically, the UK firm claims its in-house technology will make for livelier photo shots with little or no editing needed, Bloomberg said in a report.
"Spectral Edge uses a type of AI called machine learning to make smartphone pictures crisper, with more accurate colors. Its technology takes an infrared shot and blends it with a standard photo to improve the image," the report said.
With the acquisition, Apple stands to upgrade the already vaunted iPhone camera capabilities further. Already equipped with AI, the iPhone camera is seen to even more boost the quality of captures images, especially when taken in low-light settings.
Bloomberg said the technology developed by Spectral Edge could be integrated into hardware and applications, indicating that the upgrade could be easily introduced in the next round of iPhone installments next year.
The Spectral technology will allow Apple to better compete in the smartphone industry, where AI-based photography has become the preference of users. In recent years, vendors have started offering phone cameras that make use of a machine learning process to produce high-quality pictures.
AppleInsider said Spectral's unique photo shooting technique should keep Apple at the forefront of the increasingly fierce smartphone camera competition.
As claimed by Spectral CEO Rhodri Thomas, the company has brought a photography solution that is unmatched by the competition.
"Right now there is no real solution for white balancing across the whole image [on smartphones] - so you'll get areas of the image with excessive blues or yellows, perhaps, because the balance is out - but our tech allows this to be solved elegantly and with great results," the Spectral CEO was reported as saying.
Likewise, the company's technology is seen to further improve on a headline iPhone camera feature, which is the lacing of the bokeh effect on captured images.
"We also can support bokeh processing by eliminating artifacts that are common in these images," Thomas said.
In 2018, Spectral Edge raised over $5 million funding, but it was unclear how much money Apple has paid to scoop up the startup.
