New AI photo and camera functions: What's new in iOS 27
Apple is adding interesting AI editing features to its Photos app. Another rumor initially did not materialize.
New Photo App in iOS 27: Expand images with content.
(Image: Apple)
Shortly before the end of the WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple revealed some interesting details about new AI functions in the area of digital photography on the iPhone. Camera and Photo Software Director Alok Deshpande announced that the company has significantly improved one function and added two more. The features are already available in the developer beta of iOS 27 and are provided independently of Siri AI, for which there is a waiting list. However, a revised interface for the camera app was not implemented. There were reports according to which Apple is planning a completely new professional interface. This might come later.
Clean Up and Extend
A so-called Clean-Up function was already integrated into the Photos app. With this, you can mark objects, people, or other elements in an image to hide them. So far, this has not always worked perfectly and lagged similar features from competitors like Google or Adobe. Since Apple is now using newer AI models for Clean Up, backgrounds in iOS 27 should be reconstructed more accurately, and objects should be masked out better. In initial tests by developers, this actually worked better, but it's not perfect yet.
The first completely new AI function in the Photos app is called Extend. It allows existing photos to be expanded with AI-generated areas, for example, if the aspect ratio doesn't fit. Thanks to the improved image models, this also looks quite good. However, you sometimes need further attempts. Apple's technology is roughly as good as that of the competition, at least according to initial tests by developers.
Videos by heise
Rotate Image Perspective
Completely new is the so-called spatial reframing. This feature uses Apple's experience with the Vision Pro and computational photography. The idea: Users should be able to change the composition of a photo afterward – for example, where a person is looking or in which direction an object is oriented. This allows for real perspective changes – interestingly, also with old pictures or even graphics. Apple is therefore not relying on additional image data from the iPhone camera. You can rotate objects and people immediately on the iPhone, and the rest is then filled in via Apple's cloud models.
“Spatial reframing uses powerful image models and only generates new content where the perspective has been changed. This preserves the original scene in the photo even with the new perspective,” Apple describes the process. It remains unclear whether there is a limitation on the number of images to be processed. Apple had announced that users of iCloud+ (with more expensive packages) would receive a larger AI budget. This also applies to the improved image generator, Image Playground.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
