Daily Authority: ???? Samsung’s response to moon shenanigans

???? Hey there! I woke up with a stiff neck for the first time in like six months. You know you’re getting older when you hurt yourself while sleeping. Anyway, there’s a lot to cover today in the Daily Authority.

Samsung‘s moon photos were in the spotlight earlier this week, after a Redditor’s experiment revealed some fishy results. Now, Samsung has responded to the matter (kind of).

The experiment and its results

• Redditor ibreakphotos posted an experiment in which they displayed a blurry 170 x 170 image of the moon on their computer. 
• From here, they stood on the other side of their room and zoomed in to the blurry picture on their Galaxy phone.
• The phone recognized the blurry moon on the PC as the actual moon, and made some interesting adjustments (as seen in the image above).
• More specifically, Samsung’s phone seemed to actually add details such as a cratered lunar surface to the blurry photo. 
• The user even pasted a small grey square into the blurry moon snap, but the Samsung phone still added lunar details to the grey square.

What does that mean?

• This experiment called into question the accuracy of Samsung’s moon shots in the first place.
• The company previously said that it uses multi-frame processing in conjunction with an AI model trained on moon photos to help take these snaps.
• But this saga suggests that the phones are adding details that aren’t visible in the first place.
• After all, how do you get more details on a blurry low-resolution image of the moon?
• You can disable the AI-driven Scene Optimizer mode to get an accurate photo, but the experiment still raises questions.

Samsung’s response

• The Galaxy maker has since issued a translated version of a 2022 Korean blog post to explain how its moon photography functionality works.
• A lot of the info here isn’t new obviously, such as its use of super-resolution tech, multi-frame processing, and moon recognition via the Scene Optimizer.
• Samsung also reiterates that it uses an “AI detail enhancement engine to effectively eliminate remaining noise and enhance the image details even further.”
• There’s a big difference between enhancing details and adding new details to a deliberately blurred photo, though.
• But this translated post still acknowledges spoofed results.
• “Samsung continues to improve Scene Optimizer to reduce any potential confusion that may occur between the act of taking a picture of the real moon and an image of the moon,” the company concludes.
• The firm also issued a response to Tom’s Guide, asserting that it wasn’t using image overlays.
• But is this simply a case of semantics? It might not be overlaying images, but it was adding a mask or filter to the mix?
• Either way, we’re currently running a poll asking readers whether they care that their moon shots are generated by AI.
• There’s an interesting split here, suggesting that at least some of you just want a nice moon photo. 
• You can also check out our list of the best camera phones if you want great snaps in general.

How crazy is this? Polish Red Bull Air Race pilot Luke Czepiela has managed the crazy feat of landing atop a helipad on a 56-storey building in Dubai.

The pilot accomplished over 650 practice landings on a traditional landing strip, trying to land and come to a stop within a 27 meter diameter block that represented the helipad. It makes for some hair-raising stuff.

Have a great day!
Hadlee Simons, Editor