As the use of iPad for capture becomes more and more prominent in the events space, we recognize the need to push the device's hardware to its limits. Guests at your events are often expecting high-quality, crisp images, even in cases where there may be limited lighting or frequent environmental lighting changes.
To combat this, Babeland Photo and Babeland Pro have always relied on a methodology known as "Tap to Focus." Tap to Focus is an incredibly valuable tool for a multitude of reasons; guests are already familiar with this technology from their use of cameras in smart phones, tap to focus automatically uses intelligent algorithms to handle focus, exposure, and white balance seamlessly, and the complications that come with manually setting camera heuristics are no longer prudent.
With the release of Babeland Photo and Babeland Pro (version 1.055 or higher), we are introducing Smart Focus. Smart Focus takes several steps to automatically adjust camera focus, exposure, and white balance, without any manual intervention. By default, Smart Focus is enabled for all events in the app (you can manually disable Smart Focus by visiting your event's Settings -> Preferences -> Hardware).
When Smart Focus is enabled, the following steps are taken;
- The camera automatically begins processing each frame (up to 60 frames per second) and passes the image through a machine learning model. This relies heavily on the Vision framework, built by Apple to ensure on-device processing and put privacy at the forefront of the experience.
- When a face is detected in the frame, the system draws an invisible box (known as a bounding box) around each face. When more than one face is detected, a larger box is drawn around the visible faces.
- The most center point of the faces is calculated and focus/exposure/white balance is automatically set on this point.
Smart Focus will remain enabled unless you or your guests tap on the screen, to manually adjust focus/exposure/white balance, or if turned off in the event's settings. Once a session ends and new guest enters the frame, Smart Focus will begin processing frames.
The performance of Smart Focus can vary based on the capabilities of your device. Devices with an A11 or A12 processor perform better than earlier devices; please test this feature in advance to determine the best usage for your guests.