Apple Inc acquired a UK-based start-up with technology that improves photos taken on smartphones.
According to filings made public in the UK on Thursday, Apple corporate lawyer Peter Denwood was recently named a director of Cambridge, England-based Spectral Edge Ltd, while the start-up’s other advisers and board members were terminated.
The documents show that Apple now controls Spectral.
Photo: AFP
Similar filings in the past have revealed other start-up acquisitions by the Cupertino, California-based tech giant, such as the purchase of digital marketing start-up DataTiger earlier this year.
A purchase price for Spectral Edge could not be ascertained.
The start-up last year said that it raised more than US$5 million in funding.
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
The US company has opened offices in Cambridge in recent years to work on artificial intelligence (AI) for products like the Siri digital assistant.
The UK company uses a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning to make smartphone pictures crisper, with more accurate colors.
Its technology takes an infrared shot and blends it with a standard photo to improve the image.
Photography has become a key differentiator in the smartphone market.
Apple has rapidly added new camera features to the iPhone, including a triple-lens system in the iPhone 11 Pro earlier this year.
It is also planning to add a 3D camera to iPhones next year for improved depth sensing and augmented reality.
Spectral Edge’s technology could contribute to the artificial intelligence Apple already uses in its camera app by continuing to improve the quality of photos in low-light environments.
The start-up has said its technology can be applied via software or chips. Apple’s latest devices include custom processors that assist with picture taking.
Apple’s purchase of the firm is one of several deals it has made this year, including buying Drive.ai’s self-driving car team and acquiring Intel Corp’s smartphone modem business.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure