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ColorOS FANs, including myself were always curious about how our R&D team works, specially at this critical time. So I discussed with ColorOS Community admin members to give us a chance to know more about Community members. Thanks to admin team for their nod to have a column where India R&D member and ColorOS FAN can interact with each other on different topics and ask their queries directly to R&D members.
As we all know that 'Camera' is the most popular topic between our FANs, so we considered it to be the 1st topic for this column.
In this episode Mr. Nitin Setia from OPPO India Camera team is interacting with me (Sai Pavan).
Considering pandemic situation we have chosen online interaction instead of face to face interaction.
Here are the key points of discussion... Questions by me and answers by Mr. Nitin Setia
1. First question comes into our mind is , how engineers have developed night mode/Ultra night mode. What is the process involved in it?
Night Mode, and Ultra Night mode gave best experience in Low light photography. It is our solution which have several dependencies and data from Camera sensors, checking the light level from sensors, modifying the frame rate and applying Artificial Intelligence based algorithm to capture in ultra-low light.
2. Now, From where do OPPO team got inspiration for developing such camera modules?
Truly speaking, we got inspiration from fans like you. Yes, as our vision is "our extraordinary users enjoy the beauty of technology" , so yes we are user oriented, and work on real problems like shooting in low light, and develop solutions
3. What are future plans of our R&D Team? In improving the camera performance.
Few things are confidential and I should not disclose, Yes we have plans for new features and upgrades, and about Camera performance, if you see in every model, we raise our standards of Startup time, Shot to Shot time, Shutter lag, and we keep on improving.
4. From where the evolution of Camera has started?
This is not specific to OPPO. And I want to tell just about digital Cameras. Few months back I published an article in linkedin on first patent in Digital camera. It was filed on 20th May 1977, and after that we slowly have seen progress year by year in Digital cameras.
In early 2000’s we have seen few camera phones, feature phones. These were using VGA camera, when Android came into market, initial phones were VGA, and 2 MP camera phones, with basic features, and it evolved to 100MP camera phones with Quad camera setup and multiple features now a days, I think Stevel Sasson in 1977 while filing first digital camera patent have never imagined this feature.
5. In the latest Reno4 Pro, a new filter is been added. The colour filter mode. What's the technology behind it? And is it possible to introduce in other devices too?
It is based on Artificial Intelligence algorithms, Yes, for few models it is possible, there is some dependency of pixel clock...
6. A 48 MP camera is able to process 108MP image. How do the optimization done in this process?
We have Image Signal processor apart from Application processor, whose main work in to processing images, it is image processing technology utilizing ISP clocks to do the same.
7. How R&D team works? Is it like whole team works on a same project or there will be different teams for different projects?
If you heard about Agile, we work as Agile team with horizontal expertise and vertical project distribution.
Eg, my Camera App experts work in Project A as well as project B
8. What made you inspired for joining in OPPO as R&D member?
The technology advancements by OPPO, as it is known for it's Camera, and the latest innovation OPPO developed, inspired me to join OPPO
9. Can we have any clues of new features coming with next versions, for our Fans?
We have confidential products, that we revel at correct time, but only one thing I can say, we will definitely see much advancement, with Artificial Intelligence in our new features.
10. We have seen notched camera, Pop-Up Camera, Shark Fin camera, Sliding mechanism in Find X, and now punch hole technology too. We also got some references for in-display camera too. How these ideas come from? And any future increments for these types?
Again I will say, OPPO is user centric company, Initially we have bazel phones, with front camera on top, then we wanted to give more view space to user, and to decrease screen to body ratio, but definitely we need to find some mechanism to have our front camera along with display, so notch came, then with 100% screen without camera, we introduced Popup camera. We worked on Punch Holes. In display camera is very hot topic trending in Tech media, hopefully we’ll see it soon.
11. How do OIS work? And what is mechanism behind the Ultra Steady Mode?
OIS stands for Optical Image stabilization, It is basically check the jerks and give a stable image as output. Ultra-steady mode work based on EIS and OIS, EIS is software solution, where we take input from gyro sensor, and give compensated output in ultra-steady mode.
12. So we have seen many innovations so far. Do R&D team faced any hard times in making these possible?
Our OPPO R&D centre, especially India R&D focus on Innovations, I am happy to say that in last one years, we have filed 50+ camera patents from OPPO Hyderabad and many more planned. These innovations comes with continuous improvements, brainstorm sessions and hard work in developing those.
13. How will be the environment in the work zone?
Very healthy and nice work culture we have. It is one of the best companies to work for. We encourage each employee to innovate which is best thing about OPPO
14. How ColorOS contributes in boosting the performance of Camera?
ColorOS is topmost layer of our Camera. So our app's view model is ColorOS, and all system calls generated from the same, It is really important for good initialization for high performance.
15. There are many beautifications features available in built in camera. On what basis it works?
It is based on AI, we have machine learning algorithm trained on different datasets to apply best beauty. Also we have done regional specific beautification which is very important, like we can't apply the same beauty effect on an American and an Indian, That's why our algorithms work on AI
16. What are the measures taken by R&D to compete with other brands in terms of Camera module?
We do not want to compete with anyone. It is not our Vision and Mission, We exist to elevate life through technological artistry
17. Sometimes we observe noise in images. How can we reduce them?
In Auto capture, we have No noise in our images, we have tested and developed that. But during expert mode you shouldn't see too much noise creeping into your images, even up to ISO 1000. However, there might still be some noise at the higher ISO numbers, so be aware of your exposure. Shooting at a lower ISO means you will have less noise in your image.
18. Few tips for current generation photographers to use the power of OPPO cameras.
We have introduced many modes, filters you can enjoy them, we have one expert mode, You can use the expert mode for capturing some professional images, like trail light.
19. Digital Zoom and Optical zoom. What,s the difference between them?
Digital zoom is based on our camera's software-based zoom whereas Optical Zoom is hardware capability of the Camera sensor. In Optical zoom, lens move to zoom the image but in digital zoom, the software enlarge the image.
20. There is a dazzle colour mode in Camera. How it boosts the colours in images? And how can it be more useful than Super Vivid mode?
Dazzle color is AI based enhancement, where it find automatically specific color that need to enhance, but in Super vivid, it is static color enhancement.
21. How will you justify this equation? More Megapixels Cameras= High Quality Images!
It is not always true, Mega pixels plays important role in quality, but this is not the only factor. Other things are focal length, Field of view and most important pixel size.
You can watch complete conversation in the below video:
That's all in this session. I would like to thank @Abhi-ColorOS@PiyushRana @Ada-ColorOSfor making this session possible. Also special thanks to Mr. Nitin Setia for sparing valuable time and answering on our queries. This session was really an amazing experience for me and I hope it will definitely going to help our community fans.
Stay tuned to for next episodes of this event. You can also get a chance to have an interaction with R&D members.
Mention your views under the comments section. Hope you loved this Q&A session.
This post was edited by Shaurya16 at 30-8-2020 21:53
Nice Efforts from ColorOS Community Side (@Piyush_Rana Abhishek ColorOS @saiton123) for this coloumn of Interaction between ColorOS Fans to R & D team (Mr. Nitin Setia).
I also got some interacting ans which I don't know,
basically first one is Dazzle mode and Super vivid Mode
And Another is Optical zoom and Digital zoom
Thank you @panasa_sai_pavan you got all the Good ques answered
