Samsung responds to fake moon images

Tech giant Samsung has explained the techniques used by its phones to photograph the Moon.

The response from the Korean company follows a viral Reddit post that showed in stark terms just how much extra detail Samsung’s camera software is adding to images when taking a photo of what appears to be the moon.

Moon images

Reddit user ibreakphotos simply snapped a photo of an artificially blurred image of the moon using a Samsung phone.

ibreakphotos claimed that the Galaxy S23 camera artificially enhances “Space Zoom” moon photos, that the camera use an AI model to apply texture over photos taken by users, and that Samsung’s marketing around the camera zoom is “deceptive” as the AI technology allegedly not only enhances image detail but actively creates detail not present in the raw images.

You can see the difference for yourself below:

Samsung response

In a statement to The Citizen, Samsung said it is committed to delivering best-in-class photo experiences in any condition.

“When a user takes a photo of the moon, the AI-based scene optimisation technology recognises the moon as the main object and takes multiple shots for multi-frame composition, after which AI enhances the details of the image quality and colours.

“It does not apply any image overlaying to the photo. Users can deactivate the AI-based scene optimiser, which will disable automatic detail enhancements to the photo taken by the user,” the company said.

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Fake or real moon image

When asked if the Galaxy S23 Ultra mobile phone camera recognises an image of the moon as the real moon, the company said it is making enhancements.

“Samsung is continuing to improve the scene optimiser to reduce any potential confusion between when taking a picture of the real moon and an image of the moon,” it said.

Galaxy S23 series

Samsung unveiled its Galaxy range, the S23, S23+ and the S23 Ultra boasting a 200MP camera in February.

Last year, the Galaxy S Series took a huge leap forward – the S22 Ultra merged with the Note series’ with the’ pro-grade camera and performance of the S Series.

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