Google’s latest ad for the Pixel 7 line shows how it can repair poorly taken older pictures

You might recall that last year, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro offered a feature called Face Unblur that uses Machine Learning to make sure that a photo you take doesn’t include a blurry face. This is accomplished by having the phone take pictures from the primary and wide-angle lenses at the same time and stitch them together. Photo Unblur goes even further. It takes blurry, dark photos snapped by any camera and sharpens them while also removing visual noise.

Google released a 30-second video today that will surely wind up being a television commercial. The title is “#FixedOnPixel: Photo Unblur on Pixel 7 & Pixel 7 Pro.” The video starts with a look at a photo of a baby that is not a great image. Superimposed over the photo are the words “Shot on that phone” leaving you with the impression that the poor-quality baby picture was taken on an iPhone (note: Google doesn’t directly make such a statement).

In a split second, we see the baby photo clear up, get brighter and sharper, and the word “fixed” appears across the face of the photo. Google then shows us some other examples of poor-quality photos that are improved using Photo Unblur. Because this feature relies on the new Google Tensor 2 chipset, it cannot be moved over to the Pixel 6 line.

With the last sample, we see the new hashtag tagline “Fixed on Pixel.” Frankly, this writer will admit to being a little envious, but truthfully, I don’t see this feature forcing me to put my hands in my pants pocket to shell out for the Pixel 7 Pro. Face Unlock, not secure enough to verify mobile payments or log-ins using facial recognition, is also another feature I’ll miss on my Pixel 6 Pro but it won’t give me the incentive to pay up for the new model. Still, that doesn’t mean that Pixel 6 series users can’t feel a little green with envy now that the Pixel 7 line is out.