Complete coverage of CES 2025

Read and watch our full CES coverage here.

Updated less than 0 ago just ago

Andy Boxall from DT in English


“For the average consumer, the photos you take with your phone are often quite good,” Spectricity CMO Henrik Andersen told me during a Google Meet call during CES 2025. I talked about the ongoing challenge of bringing new and exciting camera technology to our phones, while the big players tend to be conservative in their approach, and unless you’re an enthusiast, the advances may not seem all that significant at first.

Recommended Videos

Spectricity makes what it calls a multispectral imaging (MSI) sensor that looks deep into visible light to produce more natural colors and significantly improved white balance in smartphone photos. I first came across Spectricity’s tiny S1 sensor at CES 2023, and at the time the company had ambitions of bringing it to phones in 2024 and in larger volumes in 2025. Things did not go as expected, and Andersen frankly explained the difficulties that arose. faced manufacturers, highlighting a problem that all mobile device lovers have probably noticed. But Spectricity is adapting, and I got some exciting insight into where its sensor will go next.

Why don’t phone manufacturers use it?

Henrik Anderson, Director of Marketing at Spectricity.
Henrik Anderson, Marketing Director, Spectricity

The conservative approach of brands like Apple and Samsung is expected when it comes to introducing new technologies, and is often a point of contention among fans and customers. But what about smaller brands that are looking for new ways to differentiate their devices and entice people to buy them? Wouldn’t a multispectral sensor be exactly the type of camera technology they adopt? As Anderson explained, the conservative strategy was just one of the obstacles Spectricity is working to overcome:

“Cost is always a factor, and we’re essentially adding another camera,” Anderson told me. “It’s also space on the phone, as well as some power requirements. [El sensor] It doesn’t consume much energy, but [los fabricantes de teléfonos] They squeeze everything they can out of the battery. So cost is obviously a hurdle that needs to be overcome and just getting that property over the phone is difficult and we have to convince them that it’s worth it.”

Spectricity S1 spectral image sensor.
Spectrality S1 Spectrality

Then there is integration,” he continued. “Many small companies only work with Qualcomm’s Auto White Balance (AWB) system, and if Qualcomm doesn’t provide integration with MSI, they have to do it themselves. “We’re working closely with Qualcomm to make this happen, but it’s a chicken-and-egg situation because companies won’t put resources into it unless there’s customer demand.”

What else can the sensor do?

Spectricity S1-A sensor on the back of the tablet.
Spectricity S1-A Spectrality

Anderson’s candid answers shed light on why the mobile industry is moving slowly and many complain about a lack of innovation. What’s also interesting is how Spectricity handles this situation. It arrived at CES 2025 with the S1-A, an MSI/camera combo module that magnetically attaches to the back of the tablet and captures 15 channels of visible light, much more than the three channels captured by a regular RGB camera.

The S1-A is not intended for consumers, but is a reference device that Spectricity will supply to partners and developers. Before the S1-A, the company demonstrated the potential of its sensor using equipment most suitable for laboratory use, so it was not easy for companies to get into the field and test it. It also does not target mobile devices with SA-1. Instead, the company is using it to show different markets how a multispectral image sensor will benefit them.

Promotional image showing the Spectricity S1 sensor used for skin analysis.
Skin analysis using the Spectricity S1 sensor Spectrality

An example is the Korean skin care brand Lululab. The sensor can be used for in-depth skin analysis, determining blood volume, melatonin levels, skin pigmentation and oxygenation. Using this data and sophisticated AI models, Lululab can recommend everything from the right dark circle treatment to acne relief to the right makeup products for your skin type. The Spectricity software even provides a Pantone color code. Anderson outlined some other unusual applications for his sensor that are being explored with S1-A:

“One company is studying wound care, where spectral imaging shows how a wound heals, and another company is studying how it can be used for food safety. Another wants to use a sensor in a robot vacuum cleaner to detect stains and determine the type of floor.

It demonstrates the versatility of the Spectricity sensor, although its most obvious use is in conjunction with the camera on our smartphone. The S1-A sensor is currently compatible with the Samsung Galaxy S9 tablet, connecting via a USB-C cable and syncing with a dedicated app. Spectricity is working to add more Android devices to the compatibility list and will introduce iOS support if there is demand.

Is this the end of multispectral sensors in phones?

Camera Huawei Mate 70 Pro.
Huawei Mate 70 Pro Huawei

The mobile industry has been slow to implement true multispectral image sensors in phones. This is unfortunate; In the demo, I saw how effective they can be at balancing colors and white balance in difficult lighting, dramatically improving images captured by the camera’s RGB sensor alone. It’s no small change, and it doesn’t take an expert to see how it improves photos, which makes it even more frustrating that we didn’t have a chance to test it in the real world.

Has the slowness of the industry robbed us of the opportunity to see how much a multispectral image sensor changes our photographs? Maybe not. Anderson has been open about the first multispectral imaging sensor coming to a phone in late 2024, which won’t be made by Spectricity. The sensor is part of the camera of the Huawei Mate 70 Pro, a device that has not yet been released outside of China.

An example of how the Spectricity S1 sensor differs from smartphone cameras.
The picture shows how the Spectricity S1 sensor differs from smartphone cameras. Spectricity/Spectricity

“We’ve been testing photo quality and we see that AWB has really improved,” Anderson commented, adding, “It looks like a lot of people in the industry are watching how the market reacts to this.”

All it takes is for one device maker to demonstrate the benefits of a multispectral image sensor and for owners to notice the difference when taking photos, and other phone makers are much more likely to follow suit. The Mate 70 Pro could be that device, but in the meantime we might see the Spectricity sensor working in other, less expected situations while we wait for the industry to slowly catch up.

Source: Digital Trends

Previous articleDangerous Ethernet adapters have been found on AliExpress that spy on owners and steal data.
Next articleBlue Origin postpones launch of New Glenn rocket due to technical problems

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here