Google Patent Changes Camera Settings Based on Local Weather

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Google takes photos pretty seriously. In addition to schmoozing the photography community earlier this week by releasing the entire Nik collection of plugins for only $150, the company also promised to make the cameras in their phones “insanely great.” And a recent patent shows one of the ways Google may go about doing that.

The patent (application number 20130076926 if you’re into that sort of thing) shows that Google is planning to one day connect GPS data to its smartphone cameras in a unique way. Instead of using it for geotagging purposes, your smartphone would use location data to automatically change settings such as white balance and saturation based on local weather info.

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Even though settings like white balance are typically adjusted automatically already, getting ambient light data from your local weather forecast could further improve the cameras abilities and yield better photos with no input from the user at all.

It may not be on par with the major sensor improvements we’ve been hearing about recently — and being a patent it may never see the light of day — but it’s a step towards better automatic photography. And that’s a prospect the average smartphone photographer probably won’t be opposed to.

(via Engadget)


Image credit: Google Nexus 4 by John.Karakatsanis

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