{"id":23101,"date":"2026-06-01T15:43:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/2026\/06\/01\/years-in-the-making-glass-imaging-is-delivering-on-its-promise-to-transform-smartphone-photography\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T15:43:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:43:58","slug":"years-within-the-making-glass-imaging-is-turning-in-on-its-promise-to-turn-into-smartphone-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/2026\/06\/01\/years-within-the-making-glass-imaging-is-turning-in-on-its-promise-to-turn-into-smartphone-images\/","title":{"rendered":"Years within the Making, Glass Imaging Is Turning in on its Promise to Turn into Smartphone Images"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Years<\/div>

<\/p>\n

\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Glass Imaging\u2019s spectacular GlassAI Neural symbol sign processing (ISP) era is closely featured within the brand-new Honor 600 smartphone, promising to strengthen the zoom images revel in at the fancy new telephone. <\/p>\n

What Does Glass Imaging Do? <\/h2>\n

PetaPixel<\/em> has coated Glass Imaging\u2019s AI era a lot of occasions in the previous few years, together with a shuttle to Glass Imaging\u2019s California headquarters in 2024. The corporate\u2019s number one center of attention is the usage of AI era and extra clever symbol sign processing to dramatically strengthen symbol high quality from small symbol sensors and cell digicam programs. <\/p>\n

\"Close-up
Honor 600 | Credit score: Honor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By means of leveraging its refined algorithmic era, a selected imaging pipeline, and on-device processing energy, GlassAI can lend a hand smartphones triumph over the bodily boundaries of small sensors and lenses. <\/p>\n

When it comes to the Honor 600, GlassAI applies its neural community processing to the telephone\u2019s zoom imaging, \u201cserving to to recuperate tremendous element, cut back noise, and keep herbal colour and texture around the zoom differ.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A
As an alternative of a devoted telephoto digicam, the Honor 600 makes use of a crop of its 200-megapixel major digicam to ship \u2018zoom\u2019 images. | Symbol credit score: Honor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GlassAI Throughout the Honor 600 Smartphone <\/h2>\n

\u2028\u201dWe\u2019re venerated to spouse with Honor and to have our Neural ISP era featured within the 600 sequence,\u201d says Ziv Attar, CEO of Glass Imaging. \u201cHonor continues to set a excessive bar for cell imaging, and we\u2019re proud to give a contribution to that have and show off our product out there.\u201d <\/p>\n

As Glass Imaging tells PetaPixel<\/em>, its neural ISP era is especially useful when coping with small pixels. <\/p>\n

\"A
Glass Imaging\u2019s standard neural ISP coaching pipeline.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOn the whole, one merit we provide is in coping with small pixels. Sub-micron pixels encode high-frequency knowledge in advanced ways in which conventional ISPs fail to decode \u2014 that knowledge isn\u2019t misplaced, simply arduous to recuperate. By means of modeling the precise level unfold serve as (PSF), sensor, and noise profile of every module, GlassAI corrects optical degradations at their supply as an alternative of depending on generic approximations,\u201d Shivansh Rao from Glass Imaging\u2019s system finding out workforce tells PetaPixel<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\"A
Honor 600 AI zoom instance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
iPhone 17 Telephoto \u2014 The iPhone 17, just like the Honor 600, lacks a devoted telephoto digicam. It makes use of a crop from its 48-megapixel Fusion digicam to ship \u2018optical-quality\u2019 zoom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Two
Plants: Honor 600 with GlassAI (left) as opposed to iPhone 17 (proper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn particular, smartphone cameras run into a difficult trade-off as pixels shrink: to stay diffraction in take a look at at tiny pixel sizes, designers have a tendency to widen the aperture, however a much wider aperture pulls in steeper rays on the fringe of the lens that introduce extra geometric aberration. A standard ISP does now not fashion the optics, so it could possibly\u2019t undo that blur; it most often most effective smooths or sharpens round it. As a result of we fashion the true optics and sensor physics according to module, we proper the ones degradations immediately as an alternative of protecting them,\u201d Rao continues. <\/p>\n

As Glass Imaging has defined ahead of, the corporate plays in depth end-to-end coaching for demosaicing, denoising, deblurring, and multi-frame fusion concurrently, in order that some of these vital symbol processing steps are carried out in parallel somewhat than one after some other. <\/p>\n

\u201cA conventional ISP runs [these] as a sequence of discrete steps, and every step discards knowledge the later steps can by no means recuperate,\u201d Rao says. \u201cBy means of coaching the entire pipeline end-to-end at the RAW, we steer clear of that compounding loss.\u201d <\/p>\n

Understandably, given the on occasion jarring, unrealistic, and unpleasant-looking effects from many conventional computational images fashions and modes, photographers are a little bit bit skeptical of anything else AI-related of their telephones. Glass Imaging hopes to steer clear of the pitfalls of extra conventional computational images through depending on an actual RAW symbol knowledge sign at each and every step of the method. The corporate\u2019s fashion isn’t developing new element from skinny air, however somewhat convalescing \u201cauthentic element\u201d from actual knowledge captured through the true symbol sensor. <\/p>\n

\"A
Honor 600 AI zoom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
iPhone 17<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
Plants: Honor 600 with GlassAI (left) as opposed to iPhone 17 (proper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cGlassAI Neural ISP is skilled to recuperate authentic element the optics in fact captured however an ordinary pipeline would lose, so the output remains real looking to what was once in entrance of the lens. That avoids the over-sharpened, synthetic, or \u2018AI-cleaned\u2019 glance you get when computational steps are guessing at element,\u201d Rao says. <\/p>\n

When it comes to the Honor 600, Glass Imaging\u2019s era takes where of a devoted telephoto lens. Whilst many class-leading smartphones in this day and age characteristic 3 rear cameras, major, ultra-wide, and telephoto, extra mid-range fashions designed for purchasers on a tighter finances steadily eschew a devoted telephoto digicam. This may be the case for lots of very pricey folding or ultra-thin telephones, the place house is at a top class and a devoted telephoto digicam comes with too many different trade-offs. <\/p>\n

So as an alternative of the usage of an extended lens with a devoted sensor, the Honor 600\u2019s zoom serve as vegetation from its 200-megapixel major digicam. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the Honor 600, zoom isn\u2019t treated through a devoted telephoto lens \u2014 the telephone reaches right into a scene through cropping its high-resolution major digicam. That places the burden at the sensor and major lens: the 200 MP major digicam makes use of a 16-in-1 \u2018Hex Bayer\u2019 trend, so its local pixels are tiny (round 0.56 \u03bcm) and most often binned into 2.24 \u03bcm super-pixels,\u201d Rao says. <\/p>\n

\"A
Honor 600 AI zoom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
iPhone 17<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Side-by-side
Plants: Honor 600 with GlassAI (left) as opposed to iPhone 17 (proper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Overcoming the Bodily Boundaries of Small Pixels <\/h2>\n

\u201cWhile you zoom, you\u2019re successfully taking pictures at the ones local sub-micron pixels, which is strictly the place symbol high quality hits an actual physics downside.\u201d <\/p>\n

Whilst zooming in on a 200-megapixel sensor would possibly give you the knowledge for a good simulated telephoto shot, cropping like this additionally finds sensor-level problems, corresponding to diffraction and aberrations that may differently hurt symbol high quality. A blur spot may also quilt more than one pixels, for the reason that pixels themselves are so small. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe result’s that merely including extra pixels stops serving to, a minimum of with naive polishing in a standard ISP, which is able to\u2019t recuperate the misplaced element,\u201d Rao tells PetaPixel<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\u201cGlassAI addresses this in two tactics. First, we incorporate lens aberration correction into the pipeline and teach on the true level unfold serve as (PSF), sensor, and noise of that exact module, which issues increasingly more as pixels shrink. In our personal managed learn about, neural recovery progressed decision (MTF50) through over 50% as pixels shrank from 0.75 to 0.35 \u03bcm (protecting the variability of the Honor 600\u2019s sensor), whilst a standard ISP in large part stalled: because it has no fashion of the optics, the residual blur remains within the symbol and the additional element from denser sampling is misplaced,\u201d Rao explains. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat hole may be very arduous to near with a stepwise pipeline \u2014 by the point it sharpens, the actual element has already been discarded. 2nd, as discussed, we teach an end-to-end community at the RAW knowledge, keeping off the ideas losses of a standard multi-stage (demosaic, denoise, sharpen) ISP pipeline,\u201d Rao continues. <\/p>\n

\"A
Honor 600 AI zoom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
iPhone 17<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
Plants: Honor 600 with GlassAI (left) as opposed to iPhone 17 (proper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2028Put otherwise, through exactly modeling all of the imaging pipeline, together with the precise sensor and lens used within the Honor 600\u2019s 200-megapixel major digicam, Glass Imaging can recuperate main points that may normally be misplaced. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re coming near what we name the \u2018telephoto physics wall\u2019: the purpose the place silicon scaling outpaces what typical optics and standard ISP can cleanly ship, and additional decision achieve is restricted,\u201d the Glass Imaging Deep Optics workforce defined previous this 12 months in an especially detailed era article. <\/p>\n

As the corporate presentations thru in depth trying out, its neural ISP considerably outperforms conventional symbol sign processing, turning in sharper, cleaner footage. The efficiency hole widens as pixel dimension decreases, opening new chances for smartphone producers. <\/p>\n

\"A
\u2018On a mixed-script textual content chart (Latin and CJK characters), the standard ISP output is basically unreadable throughout all configurations because of critical artifacts from Hex CFA demosaicing and uncorrected chromatic aberrations. The neural ISP recovers legible textual content around the complete pitch differ, with step by step sharper rendering at smaller pitches,\u2019 Glass Imaging explains.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
\u2018On converging line patterns, upper pixel density is helping get to the bottom of finer traces in each circumstances. Then again, the standard ISP nonetheless presentations moir\u00e9 results at smaller pixel sizes. The Neural ISP cleanly resolves the road patterns because of PSF conscious deconvolution, with visibly finer element preserved at 0.35 \u00b5m than at 0.75 \u00b5m,\u2019 says Glass Imaging.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Glass Imaging Can Make stronger Symbol High quality From Any Sensor <\/h2>\n

Talking of smartphone makers, whilst Glass Imaging can not talk about any specific long term, unannounced merchandise, Rao says the workforce is operating arduous to expand new applied sciences for lots of gadgets around the smartphone trade and past. Glass Imaging\u2019s era provides promising advantages for any digicam, particularly the ones with smaller sensors and lenses, corresponding to wearables, drones, car, scientific, and extra. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou will have to be expecting to look Glass Imaging in additional puts through the years,\u201d Rao concludes. <\/p>\n\n

Symbol credit:<\/strong> Honor 600 product footage through Honor. Actual-world pattern footage through Cyrus Tabar. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glass Imaging\u2019s spectacular GlassAI Neural symbol sign processing (ISP) era is closely featured within the brand-new Honor 600 smartphone, promising to strengthen the zoom images revel in at the fancy new telephone. What Does Glass Imaging Do? PetaPixel has coated Glass Imaging\u2019s AI era a lot of occasions in the previous few years, together with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/petapixel.com\/assets\/uploads\/2026\/06\/glass-imaging-honor-600-crop-featured.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23102,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23101\/revisions\/23102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webdesignrace.com\/photography_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}