Google open sources its semantic image technology

Google has released the code for its semantic image technology, which means developers can use the same technology in their own apps. Portrait mode is just one example of how this technology can be used. Developers can use it to create even cooler features.

This open sourced release includes DeepLab-v3+ models built on top of a powerful convolutional neural network (CNN) backbone architecture for the most accurate results, intended for server-side deployment.

Google actually uses AI to pull that off – and now, the company has open sourced a similar technology that developers can use in their thirdparty camera apps for high-quality portrait mode style shots.

As part of this release, Google is sharing the Tensorflow model training and evaluation code, as well as models already pre-trained on the Pascal VOC 2012 and Cityscapes benchmark semantic segmentation tasks.

Undoubtedly, the Pixel 2 family has one of the best cameras on any smartphone right now. But most of the magic is happening on the software side. The camera uses semantic image segmentation. And with Google open sourcing the code, further creative functionality can be explored.