HDR photos in iOS 4.1 could be a result of Apple acquisition

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
The addition of high dynamic range photos to the iPhone 4 via the iOS 4.1 software update may have come from the purchase of Imsense Ltd., a company that creates software to improve the quality of digital photos.



Evidence compiled by MacRumors shows that Imsense was acquired in July by an unnamed buyer, and its online presence, including the "imphoto" application it sold for the iPhone in the App Store, has since vanished. In addition, Alexis Gatt, formerly the director of engineering at Imsense, is now a senior engineer at Apple.



The company developed technology it dubbed "eye-fidelity," which allows for dynamic range correction in both standard and HDR photos. This is accomplished by recovering details lost in underexposed and overexposed pictures.



In addition to an iPhone application, Imsense sold imphoto software for both PC and Mac. But since the company's online presence was purged, the applications are no longer available.



Apple's HDR photos, exclusive to the iPhone 4 in iOS 4.1, are created by quickly taking three pictures: one normal, one underexposed, and one overexposed. The resulting effect, in some cases, results in superior pictures when taken in daylight or a bright setting.



When enabled, the HDR photo feature helps to prevent pictures that are "blown out" with too much light. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs demonstrated the HDR feature at his company's media event last month, where he said the software relies on "pretty sophisticated algorithms," but did not elaborate. iOS 4.1 was publicly released last week.







Apple has made a number of smaller acquisitions in the last year, as the company has more than $45 billion in cash on hand. In July, it was alleged to have bought Poly9, an online mapping company based out of Quebec, Canada.



Apple's purchase of Quattro Wireless late last year paved the way for the iAd mobile advertising network to launch in July. And the acquisition of streaming music service Lala is believed to play an integral role in a rumored cloud-based revamp of iTunes.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    The addition of high dynamic range photos to the iPhone 4 via the iOS 4.1 software update may have come from the purchase of Imsense Ltd., a company that creates software to improve the quality of digital photos.



    Evidence compiled by MacRumors shows that Imsense was acquired in July by an unnamed buyer, and its online presence, including the "imphoto" application it sold for the iPhone in the App Store, has since vanished. In addition, Alexis Gatt, formerly the director of engineering at Imsense, is now a senior engineer at Apple.



    The company developed technology it dubbed "eye-fidelity," which allows for dynamic range correction in both standard and HDR photos. This is accomplished by recovering details lost in underexposed and overexposed pictures.



    In addition to an iPhone application, Imsense sold imphoto software for both PC and Mac. But since the company's online presence was purged, the applications are no longer available.



    Apple's HDR photos, exclusive to the iPhone 4 in iOS 4.1, are created by quickly taking three pictures: one normal, one underexposed, and one overexposed. The resulting effect, in some cases, results in superior pictures when taken in daylight or a bright setting.



    When enabled, the HDR photo feature helps to prevent pictures that are "blown out" with too much light. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs demonstrated the HDR feature at his company's media event last month, where he said the software relies on "pretty sophisticated algorithms," but did not elaborate. iOS 4.1 was publicly released last week.







    Apple has made a number of smaller acquisitions in the last year, as the company has more than $45 billion in cash on hand. In July, it was alleged to have bought Poly9, an online mapping company based out of Quebec, Canada.



    Apple's purchase of Quattro Wireless late last year paved the way for the iAd mobile advertising network to launch in July. And the acquisition of streaming music service Lala is believed to play an integral role in a rumored cloud-based revamp of iTunes.





    HDR photos are great, love it.
  • Reply 2 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    The addition of high dynamic range photos to the iPhone 4 via the iOS 4.1 software update may have come from the purchase of Imsense Ltd., a company that creates software to improve the quality of digital photos.



    Evidence compiled by MacRumors shows that Imsense was acquired in July by an unnamed buyer, and its online presence, including the "imphoto" application it sold for the iPhone in the App Store, has since vanished. In addition, Alexis Gatt, formerly the director of engineering at Imsense, is now a senior engineer at Apple.



    The company developed technology it dubbed "eye-fidelity," which allows for dynamic range correction in both standard and HDR photos. This is accomplished by recovering details lost in underexposed and overexposed pictures.



    In addition to an iPhone application, Imsense sold imphoto software for both PC and Mac. But since the company's online presence was purged, the applications are no longer available.



    Apple's HDR photos, exclusive to the iPhone 4 in iOS 4.1, are created by quickly taking three pictures: one normal, one underexposed, and one overexposed. The resulting effect, in some cases, results in superior pictures when taken in daylight or a bright setting.



    When enabled, the HDR photo feature helps to prevent pictures that are "blown out" with too much light. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs demonstrated the HDR feature at his company's media event last month, where he said the software relies on "pretty sophisticated algorithms," but did not elaborate. iOS 4.1 was publicly released last week.







    Apple has made a number of smaller acquisitions in the last year, as the company has more than $45 billion in cash on hand. In July, it was alleged to have bought Poly9, an online mapping company based out of Quebec, Canada.



    Apple's purchase of Quattro Wireless late last year paved the way for the iAd mobile advertising network to launch in July. And the acquisition of streaming music service Lala is believed to play an integral role in a rumored cloud-based revamp of iTunes.







    Damn. This is the best journalism I've seen on AI in a long time. Taking the various pieces and putting them together was done very well. Kudos to the author.
  • Reply 3 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zindako View Post


    HDR photos are great, love it.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Newtron View Post


    Damn. This is the best journalism I've seen on AI in a long time. Taking the various pieces and putting them together was done very well. Kudos to the author.



    I guess you guys haven't been on the Internet long eh?



    There is no need to quote the entire article just to add your one liner at the end. It's extremely bad form, especially when you aren't even referencing the material you are quoting. The purpose of the quote is to say "I'm replying to this thought here," but neither of your comments reference anything at all in the text.
  • Reply 4 of 89
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    They are stealthy in every way. Way to go Apple!
  • Reply 5 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    I guess you guys haven't been on the Internet long eh?



    There is no need to quote the entire article just to add your one liner at the end. It's extremely bad form, especially when you aren't even referencing the material you are quoting. The purpose of the quote is to say "I'm replying to this thought here," but neither of your comments reference anything at all in the text.



    You're right, wont let it happen again
  • Reply 6 of 89
    The first thing I did after downloading 4.1 was buy AutoStitch. An awesome combination.
  • Reply 7 of 89
    While I'm happy Apple added HDR photos to iOS 4.1, I will continue to keep ProHDR on my iPhone. A simple comparison of photos created with the new native HDR and ProHDR shows that ProHDR still brings out more details, although at the cost of a bit of yellowing of the photos. I also found that the new native HDR functionality appears to darken shaded areas more than it should, with standard photos showing more detail in the shaded area than the new native HDR composite photo. The result is than all three options need to be around to generate that otherwise problematic shot in high contrasty photos to give one the best starting point for color/contrast/brightness corrections post photo taking in iPhoto.
  • Reply 8 of 89
    Does anyone think Apple will go into the CAMERA and/or CAMCORDER business? They do love photography and videos (FCS, Aperture)... Just a thought.
  • Reply 9 of 89
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    Cue someone who never shoot pro-photography to come in and tell us iPhone 4 doesn't take "true" HDR image in 3..2..1..
  • Reply 10 of 89
    al_bundyal_bundy Posts: 1,525member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post


    Does anyone think Apple will go into the CAMERA and/or CAMCORDER business? They do love photography and videos (FCS, Aperture)... Just a thought.





    i moved recently and put my digital camera into my inlaws garage during the process. found it yesterday and realized i haven't used it in over a year since i had my iphone
  • Reply 11 of 89
    xsuxsu Posts: 401member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post


    Does anyone think Apple will go into the CAMERA and/or CAMCORDER business? They do love photography and videos (FCS, Aperture)... Just a thought.



    They are already in the Camera and Camcorder business. The new iPhone is one heck of a camera/camcorder.
  • Reply 12 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by al_bundy View Post


    i moved recently and put my digital camera into my inlaws garage during the process. found it yesterday and realized i haven't used it in over a year since i had my iphone



    I have a Sony Cybershot that takes better pictures than my iPhone, but I barely use it. It's one additional thing I'd have to carry if I go out somewhere and even when I do manage to take a few pictures with them, they stay on there. When I get home I can never seem to remember to find the sync cable and import them into iPhoto.
  • Reply 13 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post


    Does anyone think Apple will go into the CAMERA and/or CAMCORDER business? They do love photography and videos (FCS, Aperture)... Just a thought.



    They did once. It ended badly. Google "Apple QuickTake"
  • Reply 14 of 89
    Well, color me unimpressed.



    After a number of trials using various subjects, I think Mediocre Dynamic Range (MDR) is a more accurate acronym. I am not one for the oversaturated or spooky images that HDR processes can be made to produce, but I do wish the iPhone HDR feature did indeed produce an "eye-fidelity" image. The most I could say is that it did a decent job on the highlights, but it doesn't bring up the shadows anywhere near where they need to be.



    I think the best we can hope for is that the app developers are given access to the three-exposure sequence. That way the rapid acquisition within the HDR feature will generate the sequence. Then the user can use an app to produce something close to what he or she sees. If the Apple MDR feature can't deliver decent dynamic range, let the user handle the process.
  • Reply 15 of 89
    i gotta say i didn't think i'd used HDR photos, but i took a ton at the beach this weekend and they all looked great. Just wish it went a little faster.
  • Reply 16 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by doshea View Post


    Well, color me unimpressed.



    After a number of trials using various subjects, I think Mediocre Dynamic Range (MDR) is a more accurate acronym. I am not one for the oversaturated or spooky images that HDR processes can be made to produce, but I do wish the iPhone HDR feature did indeed produce an "eye-fidelity" image.



    Well I'm sure you know what your talking about when it comes to photography but frankly the majority of users don't, myself included.



    I think HDR offers a marked improvement and there's no fiddling about. Point and click. Simple, easy with great results. This is the Apple way.



    If you want pro shots buy a pro camera and learn how to use it.
  • Reply 17 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe hs View Post


    They did once. It ended badly. Google "Apple QuickTake"



    That was back when Steve out of Apple. He discontinued that ugly thing when he came back.. Maybe they'll take another shot at it since Apple today is now CE company.
  • Reply 18 of 89
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by doshea View Post


    Well, color me unimpressed.



    After a number of trials using various subjects, I think Mediocre Dynamic Range (MDR) is a more accurate acronym. I am not one for the oversaturated or spooky images that HDR processes can be made to produce, but I do wish the iPhone HDR feature did indeed produce an "eye-fidelity" image. The most I could say is that it did a decent job on the highlights, but it doesn't bring up the shadows anywhere near where they need to be.



    I think the best we can hope for is that the app developers are given access to the three-exposure sequence. That way the rapid acquisition within the HDR feature will generate the sequence. Then the user can use an app to produce something close to what he or she sees. If the Apple MDR feature can't deliver decent dynamic range, let the user handle the process.



    It's actually pretty good, considering the size of the sensor being used. It does bring out shadow detail, but you should use the semi-manual settings. This won't work for every image, but it's pretty good. Ars just did a review of the feature:



    http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...and-ios-41.ars
  • Reply 19 of 89
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr Underhill View Post


    Well I'm sure you know what your talking about when it comes to photography but frankly the majority of users don't, myself included.



    I think HDR offers a marked improvement and there's no fiddling about. Point and click. Simple, easy with great results. This is the Apple way.



    If you want pro shots buy a pro camera and learn how to use it.



    It's tough even using my semi-pro Canon 5D mkII and Photoshop with the new HDR features. It just depends on how correct you want it to be. This little app does a bang up job for something that does it automatically, with such a poor (compared to my D-SLR) camera.
  • Reply 20 of 89
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wurm5150 View Post


    That was back when Steve out of Apple. He discontinued that ugly thing when he came back.. Maybe they'll take another shot at it since Apple today is now CE company.



    I think they discontinued it even before he came back. I had one, it was really bad. 640 x 480...
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