With the launch of Pixel 3, Google has also introduced a new camera feature called Top Shot. It’s ready alongside the Night Shot feature, ready to capture those special but sudden moments you are not usually prepared for. If you don’t want to miss another shot, use Top Shot as it tries to capture several frames so you can choose the best photo later. It is like burst mode photography but with more advanced features as it utilizes Visual Core to offer premium quality HDR+ photos.
How does the feature work exactly? As soon as you open the Camera app of your Pixel 3, the phone enables Top Shot by default. This allows the app to capture images even before the shutter button is pressed.
The app then analyzes the images in real time to show the best possible quality. The analysis is done on-device and not online so you don’t have to worry about privacy.
Every image has exposure time, gyro sensor data, optical flow as signals that help form the input features. The results are then used to determine frame quality. It’s up to the user to review which frames to preserve.
The “top shots” are processed by Google’s Visual Core and are saved as HDR+ images. Simply put, the Pixel 3 Camera app captures multiple moments as soon as it is opened.
Top moments are recognized by several factors and in layers. When the subject isn’t a person, there’s the frame scoring model to check subject motion saliency, global motion blur, and “3A” scores.
Top Shot makes use of machine learning, as well as, optimized hardware. With this new feature, expect mobile phone photography to advance further in future Pixel and other Android phones.
SOURCE: Google AI Blog
