For some years now, some of the members of the XDA Developers forum have been in charge of creating a Google Camera Port. By definition, making a port consists of extracting the application from the Android version of these devices. In this way, the app can be installed on as many devices as possible through the apk format. Besides, extracting these characteristics and creating apps with pro features.

Previous Requirements

Before starting you should know that the Google Camera in addition to being an apk file, is also a set of specific settings for the camera of each device. Because of this, you will find many versions of Google Camera, but do not worry in this post we will teach you how to easily find and install the right one for your device.

By the way, please note that devices with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors will have better compatibility than Exynos, MediaTek, and Kirin processors.

First step

The first thing you should do is check the level of compatibility your device will have with the Google Camera. Download the Camere2 API Probe app directly from the Google Play Store.

Camera2 Probe verifies the level of compatibility that a third-party app will have with the cameras on your device.

To do this, open the app and check the Hardware Support Level section. Now you’ll see the next levels:

• Level_3: This is the maximum level, if you are in this one you will have a hundred percent compatibility, probably you will be in this one if your device has a Snapdragon processor.

• Full: Although this level is called Full, this does not mean that you will have full compatibility, but that you will have most of the features available. You will also be able to install the Google Camera. You will probably be at this level if your device has an Exynos or MediaTek processor.

• Limited: If you are at this level, I have bad news, it will not be enough to install Google Camera. Probably your device has a Kirin processor of the brand Huawei.

• Legacy: The same as Limited the level will not be enough.

Second step

To install the Google Camera you will need to use an app called Gcamator that you can find in the Google Play Store by following the link below.

Google Play Store: Gcamator

Then open Gcamator app, and go to Your Gcam section. Gcamator will search for the right apk file for your device, and give you a download link.
After that click on INSTALL. Then the application will ask you for permission to access the internal storage of your device; you have to press the ALLOW button.

The download will start automatically, after a few minutes, the app will notify you that the download has successfully completed, then press INSTALL.

After that, the Gcamator will notify you that you don’t have enough permissions, later, press settings, and then press Allow from this source. Now go back and the installation wizard will appear, finally, press INSTALL.

Third step

Initial setting. First, open the Google Camera. Then the application will ask you for permission to access the camera, microphone, internal storage of your device, and your location; you must press the ALLOW button for each one.
And that’s it after you have done all the steps correctly, you can enjoy the Google Camera.

Conclusion

Because of the open-source nature of Android, we can always upgrade our devices, no matter how much money we have spent. The Google Camera has shown a great capacity since the first generation of Google Pixel, it doesn’t matter even if we don’t have any of these devices. Ideally, you should have the Google Camera installed to take advantage of its many features. I recommend you to join our telegram channel thanks for reading us.

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Scientists at Harvard University revealed a metalens that might be shrinking the size of devices with a camera while improving the performance at the same time. If interested, take a look at the future of phones & tablets in 2018.

How normal camera lens works

To understand the possibility, at first, we have to understand how normal (traditional) lens work. Normal lenses are made of glass. When taking pictures, the lens has to focus the light into one point. For focusing all the spectrum of light, these lenses had to use additional material layers. These additional layers make the lens thicker, so the holding device becomes thicker and heavier.

Features of metalens

There are numerous advantages of using a metalens over the traditional lens. The important one is, these metalenses don’t need the additional material layer to centralize all the light spectrum. This feature makes the lens thinner.

Previously, all the metalenses weren’t able to concentrate all the light spectrum. This was a major issue for using them in real life. Thanks to the scientists at Harvard University, the new metalens is capable of doing it without any additional layer.

This is a big step forward. Where the traditional lens is made of glass, these advanced metalens is made of a flat surface peppered with nanostructures to focus light. Since discovered, it couldn’t focus all the visible light spectrum. Now, the obstacle is no more.

Newly invented metalens

According to Federico Capasso, a professor of applied physics at Harvard University and author of the research paper, the lens is flat and thinner than a conventional lens. Such lens, if used in a cellphone, would make the phone a lot thinner.

Wei Ting Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and member of the metalens team, explained how this metalens is developed. By combining 2 nanofins into one element, the speed of light is tuned by the nanostructured materials, ensuring all visible wavelengths focused in the same spot.

The lens is the reason for the bump of cellphone’s back. Most of the cellphone companies hate the situation. The new metalens, being much thinner, it’s very exciting for everyone. Moreover, a general cellphone lens contains 6-7 regular lenses. According to Federico Capasso, if it’s possible to cut down the number down to 3, it’ll be pretty significant.

Impact on VR & AR

You may not know, but VR & AR is largely dependent on the lens. This new lens, correcting chromatic aberration, has the potential to improve VR devices a lot better.

Sam Rosen, a vice president at ABI Research, explained how this improves the situation. Chromatic aberration resulting from the propagation speed of various light frequencies is a major challenge to provide the perfect visual fidelity and realism in VR & AR.

For fixing the issue, we had to use computer-intensive methods to adjust focal points or color-by-color basis. The process is resource hungry and required a powerful hardware. Now, with the help of this metalens, the process will no longer eat computer resources. Thus, new VR & AR devices will provide better quality while keeping the system a lot simpler and faster.

Business scope

The metalenses being easier to manufacture and with other features is the perfect suite for next-generation cameras. Companies are pretty excited about that.

The traditional camera subsystem uses sensor – a piece of fabricated silicon and a stack of lenses. With this metalens, the same camera module can be created. According to Capasso, that’s a breakthrough for camera industry.

However, we have to wait long before this lens is on the field. The project is still in research stages. With this big step forward, I’m expecting to use them as soon as possible.

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