Shutter lag is one of the biggest gripes about taking photos on a camera phone – especially on higher resolution handsets.
So it was interesting to hear first hand Scalado’s take on a solution to that particular problem.
Appropriately called the Scalado Camera Solution, it enables zero-shutter lag, burst capturing and instant zoom/pan in the camera.
The new technology also promises to improve JPEG image handling performance by effectively managing the large files produced by high-resolution images.
Smartphone.biz-news was given a glimpse of the product by Mats Jacobson and Sami Niemi, respectively CEO and CTO of Scalado, at the recent Smartphone Show in London.
Niemi demonstrated the possibilities the technology offers, including snapping three images in a row with no shutter lag and a speedy shot-to-shot time.
As well as ensuring users don’t miss that "moment", his demo showed the product’s ability to instantly zoom into the resulting JPEG image to review the details of the photo in real-time.
He said manufacturers would now be able to offer real-time viewing and capturing of high-resolution images, totally eliminating shutter lag.
"This is the kind of user experience we want – where everything is instant," he said. "You can see all the details and have the shot you wanted. This is the next generation of imaging."
This is all good news for phone manufactuers especially following research from Strategy Analytics showing that a quality camera is the primary mobile phone add-on for which consumers in the US and Western Europe would be willing to pay – and willing to pay the most – compared to other mobile device features.
The Scalado Camera Solution is based on two products: the SpeedTags IP and the Scalado Camera Engine.
The former is a minimal modification to the HW JPEG encoder that enables the encoder to produce modified JPEG images, referred to as SpeedTagged JPEGs.
Several camera sensors and camera modules for camera phones are already embedding the SpeedTags IP, such as sensors from both Aptina, OmniVision Samsung and MtekVision.
Jacobson said that as well as addressing the missed shots problem, the Camera Solution dealt with other !! usability problems !! including:
- slow image browsing
- slow zooming
- inability to edit mpx images in full resolution
- long shot-to-shot times
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