Computational photography has transformed the world of imaging – and now Alice Camera is here, to transform your phone into your very own computational camera.
The Alice Camera, which has just launched its pre-order and 30-day crowdfunding campaign, combines a number of technologies like Voltron to deliver an AI-powered computational camera.
Ever wandered why the best camera phones often takes 'better' photographs than your camera, even (indeed, especially) in challenging conditions? That's down to computational photography – software algorithms that enable it to intelligently enhance your shots with the same kinds of tricks you would usually have to do in post-production.
However, your phone is limited by two things: its tiny sensor and its fixed, limited lenses. Alice Camera overcomes these limitations by featuring a much larger 10.7MP Micro Four Thirds image sensor, with a quad-bayer structure and dual native ISO for superior ISO and noise performance.
In addition, it features a complementary mount that enables you to use the best Micro Four Thirds lenses from Olympus, Panasonic and others. So no longer are you stuck with the standard wide and telephoto optics and digital zooms of smartphones – you can use 'proper' zoom lenses, wide-aperture lenses, tilt-shift lenses and other optics to unlock the true power of computational photography.
Alice Camera enables you to use your phone as a rear screen, to naturally interface with its menu system and act as a Live View display. By integrating your phone, the camera can also seamlessly stream and share your images and 4K 30p / 1080p 60p video footage.
The body itself houses a dedicated AI chip with deep learning, which the creators say will be regularly updated via firmware so that you don't need to purchase a new camera to get new tech.
They also say that that the custom Linux software will be open source, so not only can the camera to be customized but anyone is free to build their own add-ons and share their development ideas with the community.
The Alice Camera is live on Indiegogo now and is available for a Super Earlybird price of £550 (approximately $757 / AU$980) – a significant discount on its £750 ($1,033 / AU$1,339) RRP.
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