Morpho software aims to improve smartphone photos

Morpho's background defocus feature creates a more dramatic, DSLR-like focal plane.

While some companies are working on improving mobile imaging through hardware, others are looking to software to improve smartphone photos. Morpho Inc. announced software at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that will aid digital image stabilization and HDR processing in mobile phones. 

Other announcements from Morpho this week describe technology to create a more dramatic focal plane in mobile photos. The effect would defocus the background, bringing the viewers' attention to the subject in the foreground. This works in the same way as in apps such as AfterFocus and can look a little artificial, at least judging by the sample images we have seen. Additionally, Morpho has developed a group editing feature similar iOS' Group Shot app.

From Morpho's press release (PDF):

PhotoSolid

PhotoSolid is Morpho, Inc.’s software-based image stabilization for still images.  PhotoSolid utilizes the company’s proprietary SoftGyro® gyroscopic engine to detect motion in Six Degrees of Freedom (6DOF), and then conduct image stabilization.  PhotoSolid corrects for blurring resulting from a combination of hand jitter, poor lighting conditions, and the distance from the subject when taking a photograph.  PhotoSolid also provides subject movement correction, which freezes objects that move quickly through the capture frame. 

Morpho HDR

When a picture with proper exposure time is over-saturated or has dark shadows, “Morpho HDR” composes a brightness-adjusted image by layering multiple images with different exposure time. It also corrects alignments automatically so there is no need for users to use a tripod. “Morpho HDR” performs ghost removal at the same time to correct the outline of the moving object providing a clear image without blurs.  

Background Defocus Technology

This technology first calculates the subject in the foreground from two images; one focusing on the foreground and another focusing on the background. After the subject is determined, it strengthens the defocus of the background to emphasize the subject.

Group Picture Editing Technology
This technology is helpful in taking a group picture. After the software takes the user selects a face of the subject, the subject’s face from multiple shots shows up in the side frame where the user can select the best shot among. By doing this for all of the faces in the group, a perfect group shot can be created where everyone in the picture looks his/her best.