Shortly after the announcement of the Pixel 2, Google surprised everyone by revealing that the phone has a secret photo chip that had not yet been activated.
As it turns out, the company just activated it for the first time with the last (and final) developer preview του Android 8. 1.
It's called the Pixel Visual Core, and it was the first processor designed by Google, although it got some help from Intel. The chip has eight cores and aims to speed up the work associated with photography software, such as the fantastic HDR + processing of the Pixel 2, but also some other processes powered by AI.
In fact, Google says the new chip can handle HDR + photos "five times faster" than a traditional processor, which in the case of the Pixel 2 is the Snapdragon 835.
Considering that HDR + is already very fast in Pixel 2, Google will probably use extra processing power to make the photos even better than they already are.
Βασικά, και οι προγραμματιστές τρίτων εφαρμογών θα μπορούν να επωφεληθούν από τον Visual Core. Θεωρητικά, αυτό σημαίνει ότι οι φωτογραφίες που τραβήξατε μέσω εφαρμογών όπως το Instagram, το Facebook ή το Snacphat θα μπορούσαν να φαίνονται τόσο καλά όπως και με την real camera application.
Οι προγραμματιστές φυσικά θα πρέπει να υποστηρίζουν το API της φωτογραφικής μηχανής της Google για να λειτουργήσει, ωστόσο, και στην τρέχουσα preview φαίνεται ότι πρέπει να ενεργοποιήσετε μια επιλογή προγραμματιστή για να ενεργοποιήσετε τον συγκεκριμένο επεξεργαστή.
If you are a developer - or just brave - you can try the new feature by signing up for the Android Beta Program from here or if you install the new ones pictures system manually from here. Of course due to the beta version you will have to install it at your own risk.
Everyone else will have to wait until the official release of Android 8.1 in December.
