How do tiny cameras take such pretty pictures? The secret is, they don’t

No image you see on your smartphone screen is the work of its cameras alone. See how AI is making you look better.

The smartphone camera is perhaps the most dramatic example of the miniaturisation of tech. How do sensors so small produce the beautiful photos smartphones now generate? The answer lies in some very clever artificial-intelligence-driven image-processing software.

(Pixabay)

No image you see on your smartphone screen is the work of its cameras alone. As soon as one taps the shutter button, algorithms in the background step in.

One of the most vital things they do is combine the light and data captured in different pixels to create a sharper, smoother image. The result: intricate details and a well-lit scene where there simply wouldn’t have been one before. Which answers the puzzling question: How does a tiny phone camera end up yielding better images that a whole digicam?