TTL SMARTPHONES EDITORIAL BRIEF – PART 1 - HISTORY

Smartphones are the main medium of distribution for FN technologies today.

FN started with Digital Still Cameras (DSC) but today is the leader in the smartphone industry.

FN deploys technology in form of software and / or hardware on smartphones and this technology is

always related to the camera of a smartphone.

Using the camera on a smartphone is about: fun, family, friends, memories or stories.

It is the core for user experience.

We are not talking about the actual history of the smartphones. We are talking about how the

smartphones changed our lives since the first camera was introduced. Because this is the part

FotoNation works with.

The DNA of this editorial is the first word that comes to mind when you think of your smartphone camera

and that is photos / photography.

We want to show that we are technology savvy but we don’t want to make an editorial only about how

many pixels the sensors have gained in the last 10 years; nevertheless we should mention it (and many

other items related) as being cool does not mean we have to be actually stupid proof and make the high

class readers leave with tears in their eyes.

We are mainly interested in use cases and how the user is impacted by the technology progression

(incredible amounts of money were spent in hardware and software so that you can see a rectangle on

your face – Face Detection).

After reading this editorial we should have answers for the following (not necessary in this order):

● how did all started? where we are in x years from that moment?

● what is the industry value and where is the camera industry positioned in the smartphone equation.

● what does a camera actually do for me as a user? why is important?

● what is computer vision and what does it do for me? technology examples and why they make my life

beautiful.

● what is computational imaging and why is cool? technology examples and how can they improve my life

● how is the camera influenced by the display, battery, ISP, CPU and GPU; why the ideal of taking

perfect pictures with a smartphone is one of the biggest races out there;

● how much can software do, how much can hardware do?

● where do apps come into this timeline and why?

● if there are cool apps out there why the OEMs fight for my attention (and money) with camera related

differentiators doing the same thing as the apps (be it capturing, editing or simple browsing tools)?

● how the illusion of professional photography was transferred to the end user using the smartphones and

their camera as the main distribution channel?

● how is a camera divided in terms of usage? (capture, browse, edit) and why each of this is an industry

in its own?

● how do technologies influence each-other for an end result that can blow your mind or leave you

frustrated (Face Detection, Face Features, Smile & Blink, Face Focus, Beautification, HDR, Panorama,

etc)

● take away - what should I be aware of? why smartphone cameras hold more secrets than you might

believe? on what I should keep my eye on when buying a phone for the camera?