Google's new camera, called Clips, is a smart device. It comes with a case that has a clip (夹子), but it's not designed to be worn on your clothing. Most interestingly, it uses artificial intelligence to take photography out of your hands and captures moments entirely on its own!
What sets this roughly 2inch by 2inch camera, with a threehour battery life and Gorilla Glass for toughness apart is that it is specially intended for moments, like when a child does something cute that may happen too quickly for you to pull out your smartphone.
The Clips device uses machine learning algorithms (计算程序) to help capture scenes. Those algorithms include face recognition. "Once it learns that there's a face you see frequently, it'll try to get nice photos of those faces," said Juston Payne, the device's product manager. And they also want it to recognize facial expressions, which involved "training it to know what happiness looks like". The Google team also trained it to recognize what not to shoot—like when a child's hand is over the lens, or if it is tossed in a dark purse.
The only way to see the images is by connecting the camera with your phone, as it has no screen for viewing or editing.
Concerned it could seem strange? Yes, Payne admitted, but he said they addressed that by making it obvious what it is. A green light on the front signals that it is on. Besides, unlike a camera meant to monitor your home, it is not connected to the Internet.
"This product is only possible because of the way that silicon (硅) has advanced." Payne said that now they could squeeze the technology down into a device this size. Going forward, we're likely to get more assistance from the artificial intelligence packed into our apps and gadgets.
