[Experience] Smarter 'A.Dot'... Automatically Handles Photo Editing

Remove the wrongly captured person and align horizontally
Summarize a movie into 10 key scenes

The image showing the AI eraser function in action (left) and the photo with AI eraser and AI leveling functions applied (right).

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] When visiting popular attractions or traveling, smartphone albums are filled with dozens or hundreds of photos. Selecting photos one by one to upload on social networking services (SNS) can take a lot of time. What if someone could automatically select only the best photos for you? The smarter A. (A-dot) solves this kind of problem.

SK Telecom recently released a significantly updated Android version of A. that includes services such as A. photo, A. tv, and A. game.

The most notable feature is 'A. photo.' Equipped with SKT’s artificial intelligence (AI) video correction and synthesis technology, it offers AI Face that automatically retouches your face, AI Eraser that naturally removes unintended subjects, AI Mask that detects faces and covers them with characters, AI Crop that sharpens the quality of cropped areas, AI Level that automatically rotates photos to correct the horizon and fills empty spaces, AI Best Shot that recommends popular photos for SNS sharing, and a Tag Recommendation feature that suggests tags for SNS sharing.

The most satisfying feature is the AI Eraser. When visiting attractions, it is difficult to get a proper landscape photo due to crowded crowds. It marks unwanted people or objects outside the main subject with white dotted lines, and when touched, it erases the object and fills the background. Users are amazed first by how accurately it recognizes only the non-subject objects, and then again by how naturally the generated background looks after deletion.

Original photo (above) and photo with the person wearing a life jacket in the lower left erased using AI eraser and AI leveling applied (below)

The AI Level feature is also highly useful. While existing photo correction apps have leveling functions, adjusting the horizon often crops the sides of the photo, reducing its size. A. automatically levels the photo and naturally fills the empty spaces. When saving the edited photo, AI analyzes it and recommends suitable tags for SNS sharing. When selecting multiple photos, AI also picks the best ones to upload on SNS.

All these processes are handled automatically by AI without user intervention. This is great news for those who spend all day selecting and editing photos for SNS. Additionally, it is attractive that the service is free without extra charges or ads.

There are some drawbacks. For the AI Face feature, while it is convenient to automatically adjust selfies to your taste, it only offers five filters, which is limited compared to correction apps with dozens of filters. Users who enjoy detailed editing may have less incentive to use A. photo. For AI Mask, a notification appears stating that faces wearing masks cannot be analyzed. Also, if you rest your chin on your hand or make a V sign, objects like fingers that cover the face are not recognized.

Applying an AI mask to a selfie

The AI Play feature added to A. tv in this update is also useful. Although there is an abundance of entertaining content, it is impossible to watch everything. It summarizes a movie over 100 minutes into 9 to 10 key scenes, allowing users to quickly view the highlights. This feature is not yet applied to all content. A. game has expanded content such as psychological tests, counseling, and tarot.

Additionally, new features reflecting customer feedback have been introduced. A 'Routine' feature that executes multiple functions provided by A. at once has been added. Search results now show YouTube content alongside existing Wave and A. tv content. The addition of external calendar integration allows users to check their Google Calendar, which is also convenient.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.