This Chinese billionaire built AI that helps Samsung, Huawei phones take better photos
- Michael Deng’s software company, ArcSoft, sharpened its focus on mobile photography in 2004
- That bet has paid off amid the rapid global growth of mobile phone users, who are estimated to surpass 5 billion this year
You have probably seen smartphone snapshots that look almost as good as if these were photos taken with professional camera equipment. That is because it now takes more than just hardware to produce better-quality pictures. Artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly helped people take more beautiful images with their mobile phones.
In 1994, entrepreneur Michael Deng Hui rounded up funds from family and friends to start a business in Silicon Valley that would develop such image-enhancing technology.
The company Deng founded, ArcSoft, is now a major global provider of visual AI algorithm and software used for advanced camera systems in a range of platforms, from smartphones, tablets and personal computers to smart televisions, cars and robots.
Deng’s 25-year journey in this field has led ArcSoft to expand from the United States into China, where many of the devices using the company’s software are manufactured. Deng recently joined the ranks of the country’s newest billionaires after his company went public on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market.
His team at ArcSoft sharpened their focus on mobile photography in 2004, with the goal of using computer vision technology to improve how phone cameras performed.