The "myth" surrounding Samsung moon photos is that the phone's hardware is taking the detailed images, when in reality, it's primarily a computational and AI-driven process.
The myth is not that the photos are "fake" in the sense of a simple paste-over, but that they are not a true representation of what the camera hardware is capturing, which is a blurry mess.
AI adds details like craters to the image by recognizing the moon's shape and enhancing a blurry input with a learned texture, a process that can create "fake" details not present in the original shot.
Myths debunked
Myth 1: The phone is simply overlaying a pre-existing image of the moon.
Reality: While the result can look like a pasted-on image, it's not a simple overlay.
Samsung's AI analyzes the blurry input and adds detail using a learned model. Tests show that even a blurry, distorted, or partially obscured image of the moon on a monitor will still result in a detailed moon image with added texture, demonstrating that the AI is not just putting a stock photo on top.
Myth 2: The camera hardware is capturing all the detail.
Reality: The hardware is not capable of resolving the fine detail visible in the final image. The optical zoom and sensor are only capturing a blurry, low-detail version. The "magic" happens afterward, with a computational photography process that adds significant detail that wasn't captured by the lens.
Myth 3: The AI is just enhancing a real photo.
Reality: While the process involves enhancing the image, it goes beyond simple sharpening or noise reduction.
The AI is actively generating new detail, such as craters and texture, by recognizing the general shape of the moon and applying a texture based on its training data. This is more akin to "creating" detail rather than "enhancing" it.
The truth: A combination of factors
AI enhancement: The camera's AI uses a deep learning model trained on thousands of moon images to recognize the moon and improve the image.
Detail generation: The AI applies a "detail improvement engine" that uses a process similar to reversing a Gaussian blur to create detail where there was none.
Scene recognition: The AI recognizes the moon-like object and only applies these enhancements to the moon itself, leaving the rest of the photo untouched.
Hardware limitations: Without the AI, the resulting image would be a blurry, low-resolution mess, similar to what other phones produce when trying to photograph the moon.
Eat a Moon Pie
