Qualcomm is teaming up with the French start-up Prophesee to develop a new type of photo sensor for smartphones. A promising technology, which is inspired by the human eye to better capture moving subjects.
Over the years, smartphones have become more and more powerful in terms of photos and videos, to the point of becoming tools in their own right for professionals – Ridley Scott even made a short film using only the Samsung Galaxy S23 Super! But manufacturers still encounter difficulties when it comes to taking shots in low light conditions or when the subject is moving, which induces a motion blur – motion blur, in French. But that could soon be history! AT the occasion of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023, which opened its doors in Barcelona earlier this week, Qualcomm and the French start-up Prophesee formalize a multi-year agreement – but not exclusive – whose objective is to improve the quality of photos and videos on smartphones with Snapdragon chips thanks to the technology of the Parisian company – which had already entered into a partnership with Sony in 2020.
As a reminder, Qualcomm is one of the main suppliers of SoCs for smartphones, especially for premium models. Their chips make it possible to improve and optimize the capabilities of the device on many points. For example, its latest processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, offers better power capacity as well as better heat control compared to the previous model. And it is now on the photographic side that the manufacturer is turning. It intends to rely on a brand new type of photo sensor called Metavision, developed by Prophesee. This is based on a new kind of technique, called neuromorphic, inspired by the functioning of the human eye and which intends to revolutionize the capture of images of moving objects.
Metavision sensor: remove motion blur
Prophesee has managed to develop a photo sensor – which therefore takes place in the module – designed to detect changes in a scene pixel by pixel and with a very high frequency. The usual photo sensors record all the data of a sequence of images thanks to the exposure to light. For example, for 30 pixels per second sensors, all pixels are updated 30 times with each passing second. This method allows you to capture a maximum of details but loses efficiency in the event of rapid movements and in low light situations.
Prophesee’s technology is inspired in its functioning by the retina and the human brain. Like them, the sensor will focus only on the relevant information within a moving image in order to better exploit the useful data. Thus, it will not re-record the pixels of the static part of the image – such as the ground or a piece of furniture for example –, but only those which make up each movement, and this regardless of the light conditions. Each pixel is independent, and only those that need to update activate, but at a higher frequency than on a standard sensor. In this way, not only does it remove motion blur, but it also allows data to be processed more quickly and efficiently, thus reducing the use of smartphone resources for processing a photo, and consequently saving data. battery. In short, it is beneficial on all levels! A development kit compatible with Prophesee sensor technologies should be available this year.