Google confirms updated Android 4.4 Kitkat camera API with RAW support

[mmadhankumar]

Software Developer Google has commented on rumours about a camera API update for Android handsets.

The internet giant confirmed that the abandoned code found by hackers deconstructing the latest Android 4.4 Kitkat code is indeed work in progress for a new camera API, and that it will deliver support for a pair of much requested features.

Support for RAW format photographs has recently been added to Nokia smartphones. The RAW image format is, to use a clumsy metaphor, like a WAV file for images, completely uncompressed, allowing support for much higher specification cameras.

With Nokia setting the bar at 41MP, the arrival of RAW support could lead to the appearance of ultra high resolution cameras in the future.
Also new is native support for "burst mode" photography. Most third party and OEM cameras have added a burst mode, that is to say the ability to take a number of photos in quick succession in order to capture a moving image, however, this is the first time it has been available out of the box.

Usually the result of a burst mode shot is 15 pictures of a blurry image that might or might not approach what the user was trying to achieve.
Google's Gina Scigliano told Cnet, "Android's latest camera HAL [hardware abstraction layer] and framework supports RAW and burst-mode photography." She added, "We will expose a developer API in a future release to expose more of the HAL functionality."

A battle has reignited over camera functionality in phones in recent months. Because of the limitations of a fixed, non-zooming lens, camera technology had hit the buffers, but as more sophisticated software substitutes are becoming available, it could be that cameras will have ridiculously high megapixel counts in 2014.


http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2309443/google-confirms-updated-android-44-kitkat-camera-api-with-raw-support