Global Computational Photography Market Size, Share, Opportunities, COVID-19 Impact, And Trends By Application (Cameras, Smart Phones, Machine Vision), And By Geography - Forecasts From 2021 To 2026

The global computational photography market was valued at US$7.214 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.02% over the forecast period to reach a total market size of US$27.427 billion by 2026. 

With computational photography, many camera settings can be automated, allowing for better point-and-shoot photography on digital cameras and particularly smartphones. The hardware is used for advanced computation to facilitate computational photography. By compressing, expanding, and mosaicking an image, these software systems enhance and expand the capabilities of computational photography. The North American machine vision market, which includes smart cameras, grew from USD1.8 billion in sales in 2010 to USD 2.07 billion in September 2019 according to AIA (Association for Advancing Automation). In addition to being driven by the need for better product inspection and quality control in manufacturing, this growth is also fuelled by an increasing need for more intelligent collaborative robots in the industry. The computational photography market tends to grow as a result of these factors. Furthermore, mobile devices are becoming more and more capable of capturing high-quality images as computing technology advances. In the most recent development, for example, Xiaomi has shared information about the camera department of its next-generation flagship smartphone Mi 11. As a result of this announcement, Xiaomi Mi 11 will come with support for computational photography, a technique for capturing and processing images that employ digital computation instead of optical techniques. 

The market is driven by the increasing adoption of Image Fusion Techniques to achieve high-quality images. Recently, fusion techniques have gained popularity in various types of applications, making the need for objective, systematic, and quantitative methods to assess or evaluate the performance of these technologies urgently necessary.  A study conducted by the Security Industry Association published in 2019 showed that the market for video surveillance equipment in the United States was USD 4.56 billion, an increase of USD 1.48 billion from 2018. It is anticipated that the market will grow even more with the integration of computational photography techniques.

Growth Factors:

• Increasing use of Smartphone 

Over the past decade, smartphones have dramatically improved their picture-taking capabilities. Phone camera technology has evolved exponentially in recent years. Mobile phone manufacturers are currently making announcements about integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning on their devices. The Qualcomm Spectra ISP technology in conjunction with Computational Photography capabilities can take images taken on smartphones to an entirely new level. 

During the Snapdragon Tech Summit in 2019, Qualcomm unveiled an AI-powered "image segmentation" feature powered by Morpho software on its Snapdragon 865 processor. Each brand has come up with ways to make pictures look better with their smartphones, whether they are flagships from Huawei and Google or affordable smartphones from Xiaomi and Oppo. Xiaomi announced in April 2020 that it would incorporate a 144-megapixel camera into the Mi 10 Pro and Mi CC9 Pro, which had, respectively, 108-megapixel cameras. Computational photography is used in these phones, and its features are constantly being improved.

Google's Pixel 4 uses computational photography in order to develop smartphones with cameras that are cutting-edge. With computational photography, the phone's images are automatically enhanced to appear more professional.  Among the most notable features in computational photography is Android's Night Sight. This new feature provides a method for photographing the night sky and capturing images of stars. It is also predicted that the triple camera will become a popular feature for smartphone photography in the future. 2021 will see the launch of the Google Pixel 5XL and Google Pixel 5. The next iteration of Google Photos will leverage triple cameras to click on amazing images through machine learning and artificial intelligence thus boosting the market for computational photography. 

Microsoft announced the Surface Duo smartphone in April 2020. The Surface Duo will run on an Android operating system, whatever comes after the release of Android 10. Computational photography algorithms may be used to process the images generated by the device's CMOS multi-sensor, 3D, IR camera. 

Restrain:

• High cost:

The market growth of computational camera modules is however held back by high maintenance and manufacturing costs. The price of mobile phones rises as smartphone vendors strive to improve image quality. 

COVID-19 Impact on Computational Photography Market:

For the first half of 2020, the number of smartphones produced drastically decreased due to the COVID-19 effect. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 AI-enabled phone brand was announced by some smartphone manufactures, including Sony and Samsung, who used its camera architecture to advance computational photography. This caused the delay in production since the state of the pandemic makes it unclear when it will end. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the market for computational photography has experienced significant declines. The world has been experiencing a decline in demand for analog semiconductors due to the stagnation of new projects. This market is temporarily affected by COVID-19 since just the supply chain and production are slowed. A positive change in the economic environment will lead to an increase in production, supply chains, and demand for computational photography.   

Global Computational Photography Market Scope:

Segmentation

• By Application
  • Cameras
  • Smart Phones
  • Machine Vision
• By Geography
  • North America
    • United States
    • Canada
    • Mexico
  • South America
    • Brazil
    • Argentina
    • Others
  • Europe
    • UK
    • France
    • Germany
    • Italy
    • Others
  • Middle East and Africa
    • Saudi Arabia
    • UAE
    • Others
  • Asia Pacific
    • Japan
    • China
    • India
    • Thailand
    • Taiwan
    • Indonesia
    • Others

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. What will be the computational photography market size by 2026?
A1. The computational photography market is expected to reach a market size of US$27.427 billion by 2026.

Q2. What is the size of the global computational photography market?
A2. Computational Photography Market was valued at US$7.214 billion in 2019.

Q3. What are the growth prospects for the computational photography market?
A3. The global computational photography market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.02% over the forecast period.

Q4. How is the global computational photography market segmented?
A4. The computational photography market has been segmented by application and geography.

Q5. What factors are anticipated to drive the computational photography market growth?
A5. The computational photography market is driven by the increasing adoption of Image Fusion Techniques to achieve high-quality images.