The Samsung logo on one of the South Korean company's offices in Gangnam, central Seoul. (iStock)
Johannesburg - South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung has announced new software which will enable its cheaper smartphones to use dual cameras.
Samsung’s new software solution for Isocell Dual image sensors will support refocusing and low-light shooting (LLS) in hardware-constrained mid to entry-level smartphones.
The company called the new software “a total dual camera solution” which will also support refocusing for bokeh effects - which allow for smartphone images to feature a higher depth of field, with the subject in focus and the background blurred.
Samsung says that Isocell Dual sensors use a library of proprietary software algorithms to enable the features in lower price mobile devices.
Ben K Hur, vice president of system large-scale integration (LSI) marketing at Samsung Electronics said that dual cameras are delivering new and exciting photo-taking experiences on mobile devices.
“Samsung’s total solution for Isocell Dual will make our customers’ product development process easier, allowing them to bring the most optimised dual camera features to a wider range of consumers,” Hur said.
Dual camera smartphones have two image sensors that capture different light information, enabling new features like refocusing and LLS.
With these benefits, dual cameras are a growing trend in premium mobile devices.
However, integrating dual cameras can be a difficult process for original equipment manufacturers (OEM), as it requires time-consuming optimisation between the OEMs and different vendors developing the sensors and algorithm software.
Samsung’s total dual camera solution will simplify that process and enable mid to entry-level mobile devices to take advantage of certain camera features mainly available in premium devices equipped with an extra image signal processor.
This enables even cheaper mobile devices to utilise dual camera features and Samsung coupling its refocusing algorithm with a 13 megapixel and 5 megapixel set of image sensors, and its LLS algorithm with a set of two 8 megapixel sensors, will simplify implementation by OEMs.
The announcement of the new software comes just weeks ahead of Samsung’s launch of its next “S” series device - the S9 - expected to take place in Barcelona on February 25.
This will be the first time Samsung introduces a dual camera to its “S” smartphone series, with a dual camera previous featured in the Note series.
The Samsung S8 and S8+ smartphone releases were dogged by delays after the Note7 became the most controversial phone of all time, with numerous explosions reported from around the world.
Samsung followed up the Note7 smartphone with the Note 8 with dual cameras, launched late last year.
The Galaxy S9 and S9+ are expected to take on other flagship smartphones from top manufacturers to be released this year, as well as the Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone X, launched recently.
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