sensors Archives - SmartFrame

Is the internet ready for Samsung’s 200MP smartphone sensor?

Peter Townshend — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 12:22:33 +0000

Samsung has announced the launch of its ISOCELL HP1, the world’s first 200MP smartphone sensor. But in a digital world dictated by bandwidth (or lack of it), are we ready?

Back in April 2020, we examined Samsung’s 600MP sensor ambitions, and specifically the company’s aim of providing sensors that capture better image quality than the human eye.

At the time this was purely a target, but the assumption was that Samsung had something up its sleeve. Otherwise, why say it? Besides, the tech giant certainly had form, producing the industry’s first 64MP sensor in 2020 before announcing a 108MP sensor later in the year.

Samsung has now taken another big step closer to its goal, with the announcement of its ISOCELL HP1 – the industry’s first 200MP mobile image sensor. To put that into context, the only other sensors that currently come close to this resolution offer 150MP and are found in Phase One professional medium format cameras. However, these can set you back a five-figure sum and certainly won’t fit in your pocket.

You can learn more about the sensor technology here or watch the below video to see exactly what it is capable of. Namely, a 616m² print of a cat.

While there are many advantages to offering such high resolutions, will the everyday smartphone user really see the benefit? In this article, we take a look at the how and the why behind this tech, and discuss why it can never work within the current online image ecosystem.

How do you fit 200MP into a smartphone sensor?

Such high sensor resolutions have historically only been squeezed into much larger medium format sensors, which can measure over 5cm on the longest edge. So you’d be forgiven for wondering how this can work in a smartphone sensor that is a fraction of the size.

The answer is in the size of the pixels. Samsung has been working hard to create the smallest sensor pixels out there at just 0.65µm – tiny compared to the 3.76µm pixels of the aforementioned Phase One sensor. With far less space taken up by each pixel, there’s plenty of extra room to pack more in.

Image quality v resolution

Those new to sensor technology may wonder why everyone isn’t doing this. The answer? Image quality.

Image quality is determined, in large part, by the amount of light a sensor absorbs, and the bigger each individual pixel is, the more light that can be captured.

Therefore, camera manufacturers are faced with a trade-off. By reducing pixel size and packing more into a sensor, it’s possible to achieve extremely high image resolutions – but with smaller pixels, less light can be absorbed, so image quality suffers.

That’s the reason for the larger medium format sensors mentioned above; they allow manufacturers to maximize both the size of the pixels and the number of pixels included. This means they can produce images with stunning detail, while retaining a wide dynamic range and the ability to perform in low-light conditions.

Pixel-binning technology

The way Samsung has overcome this trade-off is by using clever pixel-binning technology. In lower-light conditions, the technology automatically merges sets of adjacent pixels together to create one larger pixel with greater sensitivity.

This does of course mean that you sacrifice output resolution, which is reduced to as little as 12.5MP in the lowest light. However, that’s still higher than the iPhone 12 Pro’s maximum resolution of 12MP.

Why do you need 200MP in a smartphone sensor?

On the face of it, the attraction of Samsung’s 200MP smartphone sensor is clear. Not only can you enjoy extreme detail in still images and 8K video capabilities, but all those extra pixels can also greatly enhance digital zoom performance.

However, digital zoom aside, will the everyday user really see the benefit? In our super-connected modern world, photography has never been more important as a means of communication. While the photo-printing industry is on the rise, the vast majority of smartphone images will only ever be shared digitally – and with social media forming such an important part of our lives, many will indeed be taken specifically for that purpose.

With webpage loading times noticeably impacted by images larger than 2000px on the longest edge and most social media platforms applying significant compression to uploads, what will become of the huge 16,384 x 12,288px files captured by high-resolution sensors like this one? Will they languish unopened in the cloud? Or, worse still, simply be deleted for taking up too much precious disk space?

The answer is unclear, but what’s certain is that the historic method of online image display is becoming obsolete in the face of such rapid advances in digital imaging.

While the fastest broadband download speed in the world reportedly stands at 226.60Mbps in Singapore, the same report shows that there are nearly 1.5bn people around the world who suffer speeds slower than 20Mbps. So what can be done to maximize both quality and user experience for everyone?

The role of image-streaming technology

One way for this new technology to thrive is through image streaming. Rather than uploading image files directly to a website, they are uploaded to a central server and then streamed to individual websites using an embed code – much like embedding a YouTube video.

By using this method, only the optimum number of pixels required within the frame are streamed at any one moment. This enables users to zoom in to the finest details of the photograph they are viewing, without the usual impact on page loading times caused by the use of high-resolution images.

Learn more: More detail than ever: Hyper Zoom meets 100MP images

The result is the best of both worlds: extremely high-resolution images displayed in all their detailed glory, combined with fast loading speeds to ensure maximum page optimization for all users.

The future

There is no doubt that image resolution will continue to increase, with Samsung itself planning to release a 576MP mobile sensor by 2025. And while exact details are yet to be confirmed, one thing is certain: with increased resolution comes increased file size.

So, in a world where most photographs we take are made to share digitally, how can the current method of online image display be sustainable? Why would users invest in super-high-resolution sensor technology if they are unable to use the full extent of its capabilities to express themselves?

If the Samsung ISOCELL HP1 and others like it are to be truly successful, there needs to be a change to the way we view images online. With widespread adoption of image-streaming technology across websites, social media, and messenger apps, we can take the online image ecosystem to a whole new level of quality.

The post Is the internet ready for Samsung’s 200MP smartphone sensor? appeared first on SmartFrame.

Samsung’s 600MP sensor ambitions point towards photography’s future. Or do they?

Matt Golowczynski — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 12:21:14 +0000

Samsung intends to develop image sensors with a resolution beyond that of the human visual system. But are we likely to see these inside our smartphones anytime soon?

Camera manufacturers haven’t quite abandoned attempts to outdo each other with high-resolution image sensors, although the action here has undoubtedly slowed in the past few years in favor of other pursuits.

Most of this focus has been on developing mirrorless cameras to match, and surpass, previously dominant DSLRs. And now, with sophisticated hybrid autofocusing systems inside these as standard, together with 4K video firmly in place and both 6K and 8K video capabilities starting to arrive, not to mention fast-growing lens collections alongside, mirrorless technology is the obvious choice for novice and professional photographers alike.

Even so, cameras continue to be released with more populated sensors than ever, and smartphone manufacturers are partly responsible for keeping people fascinated with how high these megapixel counts can go.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung, which once carried a range of conventional camera lines but pulled out of the market a few years ago, had already announced an ISOCELL Bright HM1 108MP sensor intended for smartphones back in 2019 (above), which is considerably higher in resolution than sensors inside all but medium format cameras.

But a press release on the company’s website this week that suggests it’s aiming for a 600MP alternative reveals much grander ambitions.

So what are we to make of this? Is this an act of one-upmanship taken to a seemingly absurd new level, or something that actually makes sense for photographers? Could we start to see such sensors incorporated into smartphones as standard?

600MP – for all

While Samsung makes frequent references to smartphone sensors in the press release, it also cites a number of other applications for sensor technology, such as autonomous vehicles, drones and the Internet of Things (IoT). It even goes as far as talking about the possibility of sensors that register smell and taste, just to muddy its exact intentions even further.

So, the sub-heading under which much of this appears, “Aiming for 600MP for all,” may well be interpreted as a sensor destined for use inside a commercially available smartphone, or alternatively one that would benefit people more widely when used elsewhere. The obfuscation here, of course, is deliberate, allowing Samsung to keep everyone interested and competitors alert, without specifically tying it to the development of a particular product or area.

The press release finishes with the following: “Through relentless innovation, we are determined to open up endless possibilities in pixel technologies that might even deliver image sensors that can capture more detail than the human eye, which is often said to be in the 500MP region.” The language used here seems to suggest that while the company may be looking to develop such a sensor, it may still be some time before we see it materialize in a finished product.

Samsung supplies parts to other brands too, so it’s possible that if such a sensor is included inside a smartphone, it may first surface in a model from a different manufacturer. This was the case with the aforementioned 108MP sensor, which first appeared in the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 before being included in Samsung’s own S20 family of smartphones, although this was presumably due to Xiaomi being involved in the development of that sensor to begin with.

Do we need it?

Such lofty figures make it easy to forget that the sensors inside current smartphones have a pixel count that’s nowhere near this figure. Huawei’s current P40 Pro flagship has a 50MP sensor, for example, while Apple’s top-end iPhone 11 Pro doesn’t go beyond 12MP. So, at least in terms of resolution alone, Samsung is already comfortably ahead.

But high-resolution sensors inside smartphones are about more than just capturing highly detailed images.

They can bring new possibilities to zooming, and boost resolutions available to videographers too. They also have the added flexibility of allowing pixels to be combined, trading off resolution for better control over image noise, which is ideal when the photographer is capturing images in more testing conditions. And here, using sensors with a particularly high resolution means that such a trade-off can still result in an image at a respectably high resolution.

The challenges of designing such a sensor must be great, and not only physically; processing all this information at speed is a feat in itself. But one wouldn’t imagine Samsung would release such a statement if it wasn’t confident that it could do so. Indeed, it may even be further along in the process that it is letting on, although where it actually ends up is something only the company knows for now.

The post Samsung’s 600MP sensor ambitions point towards photography’s future. Or do they? appeared first on SmartFrame.

How do you share high-resolution images online without fear of theft?

Matt Golowczynski — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 14:38:37 +0000

Today’s cameras, whether they’re designed for professional photography or found inside smartphones, are capable of outputting images at a resolution that’s way beyond most people’s requirements.

12MP sensors are now something of a minimum for smartphones, but a number of models now stretch to 40MP and beyond. Likewise, today’s budget mirrorless cameras and DSLRs typically offer 24MP at the more entry-level end of the market, but more advanced models with more populated sensors can be had for not much more.

But when you consider that such images are typically only shared and displayed in a way where only a fraction of this detail can be appreciated by the viewer, you might start to wonder why anyone chooses to capture at these settings in the first place.

After all, we don’t all print billboard-sized images from our smartphone snaps, and high-resolution images, when shared online, are particularly attractive to thieves. Whether it’s a product shot that can be used to sell counterfeit goods, or a more artistic image that can either be used commercially without authorization or entered into a competition, high-resolution images have plenty of appeal to those intent on stealing them in the first place.

100MP – but in a smartphone

Camera sensors that have a pixel count in excess of 100MP are nothing new in high-end photography; medium format models have offered this for some time. Nevertheless, recent news that Samsung has partnered with Xiamoi to introduce a 108MP sensor should highlight just how deeply smartphone manufacturers are seeking to encroach into the similar high-resolution territory – even if they stand to attract a very different kind of user with the finished product.

The number of megapixels on a camera’s sensor has long been viewed as an indictor of how much detail the camera stands to capture. In reality, the level of detail you end up realizing in images is also determined by a host of other factors, from the sensor’s physical design and light-gathering efficiency through to the quality of the lens in front of it. That said, camera and smartphone manufacturers have long been aware of how useful a marketing tool this can be – and it’s something consumers continue to take into account.

More recently, cameras with even modest sensors have started to offer a feature that combines a number of images into one, outputting these at 150MP and beyond. Together with advances in computational photography, today’s cameras are far more powerful than those available only a few generations ago. But does it make any difference to the photographer who only ever intends on sharing their images online?

After all, even 4K displays are only capable of showing around 8MP worth of information, and that’s only the case when the image fills the whole screen. When you consider that most images will end up being viewed on lower-resolution smartphones or tablets, the need for super-high resolution images becomes even less clear.

More benefits than one

And yet, things aren’t quite this straightforward. First, high-resolution sensors may be capable of capturing high-resolution images, but they can continue to provide advantages when images are destined to be output at a far lower resolution.

Cameras with high-resolution sensors have, for example, long provided additional flexibility with regards to cropping. The ability to home in on a small element within a scene and trim away peripheral details, while still retaining enough detail for printing or display on a high-resolution monitor, is something many photographers appreciate when processing their images.

Smartphones that have 40MP or 48MP sensors will also typically combine a number of pixels into one when it comes to image processing, outputting these images at a lower resolution than the sensor’s native pixel count but with better processing of destructive image noise. This is particularly useful when capturing in low light, where image noise is more of an issue and its removal more of a priority than outright resolution.

Benefits of high-resolution sensors extend to video recording too. It’s becoming increasingly common, for example, for cameras capable of outputting 4K video footage to initially record at a higher resolution, such as 6K, before the video is output at a lower resolution. This process, known as oversampling, can smooth out the effects of aliasing and deliver crisper details than would otherwise be the case.

Sharing those benefits

Most people who capture images with modern cameras will be reluctant to share their original images as they’re clearly more valuable to thieves. Instead, they end up downsampling their full-resolution images before sharing them online – and, in doing so, ridding them of the finer details they originally captured. But is it possible to share images at their finest quality while still keeping them safe?

The traditional solution has been to apply a digital watermark, a small graphic or some text embedded within the image itself, which makes it clear that the image is subject to copyright and cannot be used without authorization. While this has proved to be an effective deterrent over the years, recent developments in both manual and AI-powered watermark removal have forced photographers to reconsider this approach and turn to more advanced alternatives.

SmartFrame’s Hyper Zoom feature is another solution. High-resolution images, which are streamed rather than embedded as an easily stolen JPEG, can be zoomed into until the viewer reaches their maximum resolution (ie 100%). But with right-click, drag-and-drop and screenshot protection effective at all times, such images are not as attractive to thieves and invisible to bots looking to scrape a website’s contents. You can see Hyper Zoom in action by clicking on the image above.

While the race to offer more and more megapixels has slowed in the face of other developments, people continue to be drawn to both high-resolution sensors and the ability to create high-resolution images from more conventional ones. With super-high-resolution composite images now becoming something of a standard feature inside modern cameras, and more photographers embracing high-resolution displays, the need for a solution that can support the safe display of these kinds of images is obvious.

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