Google Introduces ‘Real Tone’ Camera Capturing Natural Beauty Of People Of Color
Image via Google
In addition to features that make navigating call centers less frustrating, Google’s new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones come with another improved function: the ‘Real Tone’ camera.
Despite smartphone cameras being around for almost a decade, the industry has yet to come up with an adequate solution to tackling racial bias in the technology. Now, Google hopes that its updated models will make imaging more racially inclusive, so that the beauty of every skin tone shines through the lens.
Google tapped on a wide community of image makers, especially those working with people of color, to come up with the new features.
According to TechCrunch, the camera team met with photographers, cinematographers, colorists, and directors of photography to gain more understanding into how to capture the most natural images of a variety of skin tones. It also used more diverse portraits to train its camera models, so darker skin tones didn’t appear washed out in certain lighting conditions.
“My mother is a dark-skinned Black woman, my father is a White German. My whole life there’s been a question: How do we get one picture where everyone looks good?” said Florian Koenigsberger, Advanced Photography Product Marketing Manager for Android.
“The imaging professionals were very frank, and they were directly in the room with our engineers. I helped facilitate these conversations, and it was fascinating to see not just the technical learnings, but also the cultural learning that happened in this space.”
For more information on the changes Google made to its camera setup, head here.
Video via Google
[via TechCrunch, images via Google]
Also check out these recent news
