Lab – the magic eraser of the Google Pixel 6, a smart and practical tool – Les Numériques

Google promises wonders with this Magic Eraser tool, arguing that its Google Tensor (again him) associated with machine learning allows you to perform small miracles. Samsung’s eraser turned out to be pretty good in our tests. Is Google up to the task?

But before getting to the heart of the matter, we asked ourselves a question – which might seem simple: can all photos benefit from the magic eraser tool or only photos captured with the smartphone? Answer in the affirmative: all photos can use the magic eraser tool (as well as the object eraser at Samsung). The joys of quick retouching are yours for all your friends who want perfect photos.

In everyday use, Google’s tool happens to be more enjoyable than Samsung’s Object Eraser. If only by its speed of execution as well as by its ability to automatically detect what can interfere in a photo. Google’s algorithm automatically surrounds what it feels it needs (and can) erase, with pretty devilish precision. At Samsung, the operation is clearly different. The software does not detect anything automatically, you will have to press on the item you want to erase. The selection is not really precise and, by pressing on a person, the tool will often overflow.

In terms of results, it should be confirmed that Google and Samsung do not disappoint, although we tend to prefer the performance of the Pixel 6, which often manages to erase objects in a decent way without leaving too many traces. Google’s AI is a big help in not removing items that shouldn’t go missing, Samsung does not like in the example below. The Pixel 6 is able to suppress only passers-by while the S21 Ultra, by manually selecting targets, does not make people disappear entirely. Worse, impossible not to remove the barge in the background.

It should be noted that in some cases, Samsung’s tool is a little more relevant than Google’s. Indeed, when the Pixel 6 software does not detect objects or people to be erased, it will be necessary to scribble on the photo to remove superfluous elements. A rather laborious technique and with which it is sometimes necessary to start again several times to obtain a satisfactory result. At Samsung, a simple click on an area automatically selects the item to delete. The precision is lower, but it is still easier to use than at Google.

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