At Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm demonstrates JPEG-HDR, a Dolby Laboratories technology for capturing and showing a better range of dark and light tones than ordinary cameras can handle.
Stephen Shankland
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Qualcomm demonstrated JPEG-HDR, a Dolby Laboratories technology for capturing and showing a better range of dark and light tones than ordinary cameras can handle, on an Android tablet at Mobile World Congress. The demo showed an image of a church interior; on the left is the ordinary JPEG image and on the right is Dolby's tone-mapped view constructed from multiple exposures ranging in brightness.
2 of 7 Stephen Shankland/CNET; poster by Jonathan Kong/Dolby
Human eye's dynamic range
Dolby explains that the human eye can capture 16 exposure values--measured here by F-stops--of dynamic range, which describes the span from light to dark in an image.
3 of 7 Stephen Shankland/CNET; poster by Jonathan Kong/Dolby
The limits of cameras and conventional JPEG
A conventional digital camera (especially on a mobile phone) can capture a narrower dynamic range than a human eye. JPEG's 8-bit range can make matters worse, especially for those who want to edit an image.
4 of 7 Stephen Shankland/CNET; poster by Jonathan Kong/Dolby
JPEG-HDR sales pitch
JPEG-HDR combines multiple exposures that capture a range of bright and dark values. Ordinary JPEG viewer software will see just a tone-mapped version boiled down from the HDR image, but Dolby's HDR software can explore the full range.
5 of 7 Stephen Shankland/CNET
Conventional JPEG vs. tone-mapped JPEG-HDR
Qualcomm demonstrated JPEG-HDR, a Dolby Laboratories technology for capturing and showing a better range of dark and light tones than ordinary cameras can handle, on an Android tablet at Mobile World Congress. The demo showed an image of a church interior; on the left is the ordinary JPEG image and on the right is Dolby's tone-mapped view constructed from multiple exposures ranging in brightness.
6 of 7 Stephen Shankland/CNET
Look at the bright side
Using JPEG-HDR explorer software, a person can tap an area of an image to adjust exposure for that area. Here, the dim interior of the church is selected.
7 of 7 Stephen Shankland/CNET
Stained-glass windows with JPEG-HDR
Using JPEG-HDR explorer software, a person can tap an area of an image to adjust exposure for that area. Here, bright stained-glass windows are selected, and the rest of the church interior fades away. All the data for the imagery is stored in a conventional JPEG image, but only Dolby's JPEG-HDR software can explore the full range.
