There’s been a lot of buzz about our Snapdragon S4 processor leading into Mobile World Congress 2012. It’s already well known that the S4 is the first mobile processor built using a 28nm process and the first to integrate 4G LTE, made possible because our chips are custom-designed from the ground up using the ARM instruction set. What hasn’t been fully revealed yet, however, are some of the finer details about the S4 and its many components which empower all the fun multimedia tasks that the average person can do with a mobile device.
The S4 Camera, or more specifically, the Image Signal Processor (ISP), boasts advanced features that are designed to allow any Smartphone or Tablet to double as a high-end digital camera. The HTC Titan II, announced at CES 2012, features an astounding 16 Megapixel camera running on an S2 processor. With S4, any given mobile device can shoot up to 20 Megapixel stills, as well as 1080p (30fps) video capture and up to 3 cameras (the third can be used for 3D capture). The S4 ISP also comes equipped with Qualcomm’s proprietary 3A camera technology (Autofocus, Auto Exposure and Auto White Balance), enabling practical camera applications such as blink detection, smile degree, and gaze estimation. Other advanced features that tap into the ISP include active “Range-Finding”, zero shutter lag, and image stabilization.
Gesture controlled apps are wildly popular in gaming consoles and other home entertainment devices. Likewise, the S4 camera is designed to support many of these gesture controls, as well as the applications created for them. Gestures like waving your hand, moving your body, or nodding your head can be used to control a game or app from a device as small as your Smartphone. The video demo below demonstrates an S4 equipped-Smartphone, connected to an HDTV, doing exactly that.
There’s more to the S4 Camera than impressive hardware specs; there’s a software ecosystem supporting it as well. With proprietary software optimizations such as Qualcomm’s FastCV and Augmented Reality SDK, camera performance is boosted to take on new experiences such as the one highlighted below.
http://www.qualcomm.com/media/videos/qualcomm-hangs-out-bert-and-ernie
