Customer
Company Overview
NVIDIA Corporation, the visual computing pioneering company for worldwide technology, the GPU (graphics processing units) leading provider, manufactures a comprehensive range of products within numerous platforms, high-load technologies and processors, combining the development process with an in-depth research, as well as partner and investment networking.
- LOCATION USA
Challenges
Going Beyond the Traditional Mobile Photography
Conceived to deliver unparalleled end-user experience demonstrating a brand-new approach to mobile image-taking, this powerful technology pushes the envelope of mobile photography with a host of next generation tools and features.
Facilitating Technology Adoption
To aid device manufacturers in adopting the innovative technology, NVIDIA required a special app that would realize low-level communication between the processor, the device, and high-level interaction with the end-user.
As a long-term software engineering service provider to NVIDIA, Softeq has earned a reputation of a reliable development partner. With strong roots both in the mobile app development space and low-level programming, drawing on years of experience of working together with some of the established electronic device and component manufacturers, Softeq was an ideal candidate to be engaged in this project.
Facing a Tough Deadline
The team faced a tough deadline of delivering the app within snap 6 months. Besides, there were also several significant technical constraints to be addressed:
- Working with disparate APIs, some of them incomplete as they were still under development
- Absence of real devices to test-drive the app (the team had to work with special development boards which simulated device behavior)
- iOS-like behavior of the app running on the Android OS (as requested by the customer)
- Overall app sophistication given the number of complex technical and functional capabilities to be implemented
The application also had several relatively simple functional parts — histogram implementation, standard picture taking modes (e.g.basic, timer, interval, “big button” mode), etc.— which posed no implementation problems.
Solution
Functional Features
Softeq's team implemented from scratch an advanced, highly-interactive camera application that leverages the power of the Tegra 4 processor.
Innovative distinctive features of the application include:
- Always-on high-dynamic range (HDR) photos and videos – imaging and photography with a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image compared to standard digital imaging
- Persistent tap-to-track technology — allows the user to touch the image of a person or object to focus on within a scene. The camera then locks in on that subject whether it moves or the camera is repositioned to a better angle, while maintaining proper focus. It also adjusts the camera exposure depending on any movement, helping avoid under- or over-exposure of the image's subject or background
- Individual functions for setting autofocus and autoexposure
Photo camera modes
- Base mode
- "Big button" mode (user taps any place on the screen to take a picture)
- Burst mode (slow, negative shutter lag burst, hi-speed hi-res)
- Interval mode
- Timer mode
Video camera modes
- Standard video mode
- Video with buffer — once the mode is on, the camera starts immediately recording the scene. Once the user stops recording, the app performs automatic cut of the recording with a 5 sec buffer added to the main video.
Photo editing and sharing
- Framing, cropping, transforming and texturizing
- Selective edit— after applying a filter the user can gradually remove it by swiping a finger or using stylus with the original picture showing through
- Social media sharing (build-in Twitter, Facebook, SinaWeibo and SmugMug functions) along with a standard Android-driven sharing function
Automation features
- Automatic focus
- Automatic lightning
- Automatic exposure— tapping anywhere on a person or object on the screen will select a point (which can be repositioned or locked) serving as the exposition target
- White balance, ISO, exposure (available depending on the device camera hardware)
- Horizon guides
- Composition guides