Google Photos Is Getting More Inclusive Skin Tone Filters
At its I/O 2022 developer conference, Google announced that it will incorporate a new 10-shade skin tone scale in many of its apps and services to better represent people of color. Inclusion and representation for underrepresented communities are much more than just corporate buzzwords, and are critically important in real life. One of the complaints against Google and other tech companies has been that the way their products and services depict darker skin tones is not representative of reality.
As part of its plans to rectify the decades-long problem, Google last year introduced the 'Real Tone' feature for Pixel phones. It is an AI-powered post-processing algorithm that aims to improve portraits of people with darker skin tones, irrespective of the ambient light. While it is difficult for traditional technology to get the correct exposure for all different skin tones in a group photo, Google's AI-powered computation photography ensures that people with different skin tones in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic photograph will look equally good, without any over or under exposure.
Related: Google I/O 2022 Recap: Pixel 6a, Pixel Watch, Pixel 7, And Much More
The new 10-shade skin tone scale being incorporated by Google is called the Monk Skin Tone (MST) scale. Developed by Harvard professor and sociologist Dr. Ellis Monk, it aims to be more inclusive of different skin tones. Research has also found it to be good at correctly representing the skin tones for people across the spectrum, but especially more so for those with darker skin. In a blog post, Google said that the scale will be incorporated into various Google products over the coming months. The company also announced that it is openly releasing the scale so that anyone
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