Bringing Galaxy Note9’s Scene Optimizer to Life

Designed to transform everyday moments into memorable tales, Samsung Galaxy Note9’s Scene Optimizer takes Samsung’s best-in-class smartphone camera to the next level. Even if you haven’t a clue what saturation or white balance means, no one would know by the stunning pictures this feature helps you produce. But how did Samsung bring this feature to life? Read on to find out more.

01. The Problem

Ask any professional photographer and they will tell you how difficult it is to excel at all genres of photography. Whether it’s portraits, landscape photography, or food shots, they all require different techniques and camera settings for the best results. But when shooting with smartphones, most people don’t have time (or simply don’t know how) to adjust technical details, such as saturation, brightness, and white balance.

02. The Goal

When designing the Galaxy Note9, we aimed to create a camera that produces pictures even professional photographers would be satisfied with. To ensure stunning images with every shot, we also wanted to make the feature as easy to use as shooting with Auto Mode.

03. The Idea

Since photographers always look at what they are shooting first before deciding on settings and equipment, Galaxy Note9’s camera needed the ability to distinguish different subject matters automatically for our idea to work. It was also important for us to build settings that appeal to everyone.

04. The Solution

To turn our vision into reality, we developed an algorithm which sorts and categorizes complex scenery and objects. By passing the image on the preview screen through multiple filters, each specialized in analyzing different shapes and tones, the algorithm can determine what the camera is looking at. In addition to processing the object in focus, it also analyzes characteristics of the background scenery to allow the entire image to be enhanced accordingly.

To understand how users judge photographs, we conducted surveys to find the most popular color and tone combinations for different types of images. We also fine-tuned the settings based on users’ feedback on photos taken by past Galaxy phones.

05. The Result

The result is Galaxy Note9’s Scene Optimizer. By analyzing the main objects, scenery and time elements of a photo, the smart feature can categorize the image into 20 different types including food, flowers, animals, landscapes, and more¹. When the photo is taken, Scene Optimizer automatically selects the appropriate color and tone settings to boost the overall quality. No matter their skills or experience, users can always rely on the Galaxy Note9 to make their photos pop.

¹ Accuracy may differ by settings and surrounding conditions.