The trope of “zoom in and enhance” from TV and movies, once a staple of unrealistic detective work, has finally made its way to real-life technology with Google’s latest feature. After much anticipation, Google is rolling out its “Zoom Enhance” feature on the Pixel 8 Pro and introducing it to Pixel 9 phones at launch. This feature allows users to zoom in on photos and enhance the details using advanced algorithms.
The process involves an “Enhance” button that appears when you zoom in on a photo. Once activated, the phone uses its technology to fill in gaps between pixels and predict finer details, aiming to improve the zoomed-in image quality. The feature essentially generates its best guess at enhancing the image, which is saved as a separate photo. However, as of now, users have yet to experience this feature firsthand.
Rick Osterloh, Google’s Senior Vice President of Devices & Services, had previously showcased Zoom Enhance as a futuristic capability reminiscent of science fiction. He emphasized that this technology brings such advanced zoom enhancement rights to users’ smartphones, making what was once a fantasy a reality.
In practice, the Zoom Enhance feature is somewhat comparable to Adobe’s Generative Fill, which creates new image content based on the AI’s interpretation of the existing photo. Instead of revealing more detail from the original image, it adds similar pixels to produce an enhanced effect. This means that while the feature is innovative, it does not actually reveal more of the original scene but rather adds imagined details.
While the potential of Zoom Enhance is exciting, initial examples show that its effectiveness may be limited. Early images produced by the feature still exhibit noticeable blur, making the enhancements look similar to the originals.
As the feature becomes more widely used and refined, its true capabilities and accuracy will become clearer. For now, it serves as a sophisticated addition to the array of computational photography tools available, but with some limitations.
