In March, it was discovered that one of the lead engineers responsible for Google’s famously powerful Pixel Camera technology, Marc Levoy, had left the search giant. Today, it’s been revealed that he’s landed a new role at Adobe – and he’s making an app that will work on both Android and iPhone.
As reported in a tweet by David Imel of Android Authority, Levoy has joined Adobe as a Vice President and Fellow to work on computational photography projects, including the existing Photoshop Camera app as well as a new “Universal Adobe Camera App”.
Holy hell.Just got word that Marc Levoy, who previously led Computational Photography at Google has just joined @Adobe as a VP and fellow to work on CP initiatives, as well as a “Universal Adobe Camera App” 👀He’ll be working on the Photoshop Camera, research and sensei teamsJuly 20, 2020
While working at Google, Levoy lead the teams responsible for HDR+, Portrait Mode, and Night Sight in the Pixel Camera app – all features that made the tech stand out at the time and have since become standard affair in many other flagship phone cameras.
The Google Pixel was noted for being able to achieve terrific photographic results with more limited hardware than its competitors, using only a single camera (for the first three handsets) rather than a dual or triple array and relying on the handset’s algorithmic prowess to do the heavy lifting.
Levoy is also responsible for launching Google’s Street View and, prior to working for the tech giant, was a Stanford professor teaching computer science, digital photography, and the science of art, so it’s clear that he’s the right man for the job.
For a truly universal camera app to exist across Android and iOS devices, it will need to account for the hardware differences between handsets, as well as the various operating systems and platforms that power them, which is no mean feat.
While there aren’t any further details on what the universal camera app may take the form of (or if it’s actually distinct from the Photoshop Camera app that we know he’ll be working on), it’s exciting to see someone of Levoy’s heritage and expertise working on such a project.