Machine learning taken to photography is capable of create simply spectacular results to add the adjective "computational." That technique or technology allows Google to recommend playlists in Play Music or develop new ways to improve low-resolution photos.
Another example of how far machine learning can go is in the ability of the new Google app called PhotoScan to scan photos. While it may seem like just another app for scanning photos, PhotoScan uses computational photography for simply amazing results.
Google's new PhotoScan app will convert your old printed photos to digital with the power of computational photography. This app uses the camera of your device to scan physical photos, but as I said, it is not only scanning an image, but PhotoScan will take care of making a first capture with the flash activated, so you have to take four more when you go placing the camera at the four points indicated by the application.
Once this is done, the app will be in charge of processing it to leave a final that it will be identical to the image you scanned. The final result will not always be the desired one, since it depends on whether you have done all the steps correctly, but for the three photos that I have been able to scan, only one I have had to repeat the process until I have obtained a proper scan.
The app allows that, after completing the process, you can adjust edges of the processed photo to fit it better. And this is where the application stays, since there are no adjustments and you only have the option of accessing a section where a series of tips are given so that the scan is achieved in a better way.
A great app that uses computational photography to show you that we are in the first steps of machine learning, those magical algorithms and much more that remains to be seen.
