Next-generation AI for smartphone cameras is expected to become powerful enough to allow, for example, adding new backgrounds to photos, ideally with automatically generated additional lighting and details for corresponding. Today, Google has reportedly found a name for this upcoming technology.
The Mountain View company has registered the term RealFill with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Intellectual property refers to the creation of “generative models” and a way “ofuse artificial intelligence (AI) to repaint images“.
These definitions invite speculation that RealFill may act as an artificial restoration expert for photos These definitions suggest that RealFill may act as an artificial restoration expert for photos with blurred, missing or damaged areas, by filling in these areas with content that, while possibly original, should be closest to what was or should have been part of the image originally.
As a result, it could step in to correct errors that object erasing functions such as Magic Eraser could (and do) make.
However, RealFill is also described as “not downloadable“, which indicates that, just like Magic Editor, it will only be available on the cloud, with all the potential drawbacks (which currently include its slowness, imprecision and inefficiency) that this restriction implies. Furthermore, concerns have already been raised expressed at https://www.androidheadlines.com/2024/04/google-realfill-could-transform-ai-photography.html on potential ethical issues related to photofaking and authenticity.
However, RealFill could also one day be an interesting selling point for a new smartphone. However, as its trademark application was filed on April 10, 2024, it is unlikely to feature on the upcoming Pixel 8a or 9 any time soon.
