Pixel Camera

Pixel Camera is a camera phone application developed by Google for the Android operating system on Google Pixel devices. Development with zoom lenses for the application began in 2011 at the Google X research incubator led by Marc Levoy, which was developing image fusion technology for Google Glass. It was publicly released for Android 4.4+ on the Google Play on April 16, 2014. The app was initially released as Google Camera and supported on all devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and higher. However, in October 2023, coinciding with the release of the Pixel 8 series, it was renamed to Pixel Camera and became officially supported only on Google Pixel devices.

Pixel Camera is a camera phone application developed by Google for the Android operating system on Google Pixel devices. Development with zoom lenses for the application began in 2011 at the Google X research incubator led by Marc Levoy, which was developing image fusion technology for Google Glass. It was publicly released for Android 4.4+ on the Google Play on April 16, 2014. The app was initially released as Google Camera and supported on all devices running Android 4.4 KitKat and higher. However, in October 2023, coinciding with the release of the Pixel 8 series, it was renamed to Pixel Camera and became officially supported only on Google Pixel devices. === Pixel Visual/Neural Core=== Starting with the first-generation Pixel devices, the Pixel Camera app has utilized hardware accelerators to assist with image processing. The first generation of Pixel phones used Qualcomm's Hexagon DSPs and Adreno GPUs to improve processing efficiency. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 (excluding the Pixel 3a) include the Pixel Visual Core to aid with image processing. The Pixel 4 introduced the Pixel Neural Core. The Visual Cores enables HDR+ image processing to be accessed by third-party applications through Google APIs and is designed to perform complex processing tasks while minimizing energy consumption. ===Google Lens=== The camera offers a functionality powered by Google Lens, which allows the camera to copy text it sees, identify products, books and movies and search similar ones, identify animals and plants, and scan barcodes and QR codes, among other things. ===Photobooth=== The Photobooth mode allows the user to automate the capture of selfies. The AI is able to detect the user smile or funny faces and shoot the picture at the best time without any action from the user, similar to Google Clips. This mode also feature a two level AI processing of the subject's face that can be enabled or disabled in order to soften its skin. Motion Photos functionality is also available in this mode. The white balance is also adjustable to defined presets. In October 2019, Photobooth was removed as a standalone mode, becoming an "Auto" option in the shutter options, later being removed altogether. ===Night Sight=== Night Sight is based on a similar principle to exposure stacking, used in astrophotography. Night Sight uses modified HDR+ or Super Res Zoom algorithms. Once the user presses the trigger, multiple long exposure shots are taken, up to 15× 1/15 second exposure or 6× of 1 second exposure, to create up to a 6-second exposure. The motion metering and tile-based processing of the image allows to reduce, if not cancel, camera shake, resulting in a clear and properly exposed shot. Google claims it can handle up to ~8% displacement frame to frame. And each frame is broken into around 12,000 tiles. It also introduced a learning-based AWB algorithm for more accurate white balance in low light. Night Sight also works well in daylight, improving WB, detail and sharpness. Like HDR+ enhanced, Night Sight features positive-shutter-lag (PSL). Night Sight also supports a delay-timer as well as an assisted selector for the focus featuring three options (far, close and auto-focus). Night Sight was introduced with the Pixel 3, all older Pixel phones were updated with support. ===Ultra HDR=== With the launch of the Pixel 8, Google announced that the Pixel Camera would receive support for Ultra HDR. Ultra HDR is a format that stores an additional set of data alongside the JPG, with additional luminosity information to produce an HDR photo. Shortly after, with version 9.2 of the app, Ultra HDR was backported to the Pixel 7 and 6. == Unofficial ports to other phones== Many developers have released unofficial gcam ports for phones not made by Google, or implement its premium features on older Google phones. These unofficial apps often work around the lack on other phones of some of the hardware features of Google's more advanced devices, and sometimes enable features not exposed by the official version of the app. There are many different versions, targeted at different Android phones. Although many Pixel features are available on the ported versions, some features may not to be available, or not work properly, on phones without proper API support or incompatible hardware. Google Play Services or a replacement such as microG is also required for the app to run. In 2016 a modified version brought HDR+ with Zero Shutter Lag (ZSL) to the Google Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. In mid-2017, a modified version of Google Camera was developed for any smartphone equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, 821 or 835 processor. In 2018, developers released modified versions enabling Night Sight on non-Pixel phones. In August 2020, a new way of accessing extra cameras was introduced, removing the need to use root on phones that do not expose all cameras for third-party apps.

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