Samsung's experimental app could bring professional-grade TV calibration to masses
As part of its Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021 showcase, Samsung has revealed the EZCal mobile app that automatically calibrates your television to improve picture quality. Display calibration is an expensive and complicated affair that requires professional grade equipment deployed by certified calibration experts. Samsung's app could disrupt this status quo, by leveraging the power of smartphones and bring display calibration to the masses.
Don't make a beeline to the app store to download EZCal just yet. While promising, we don't know much about how the app works, apart from Samsung's claim that it will bring cinema grade picture quality to your TV. Samsung's promotional material hints at the app utilizing the camera and other sensor arrays to calibrate your TV according to changing ambient lighting conditions.
You aren't getting the most out of your television unless you perform basic calibration. Virtually all TVs are set up from the factory to compete in harshly lit showrooms. However, home lighting is significantly milder, causing the default picture settings to appear terrible. Most photographers and video professionals therefore pay a pretty penny to ISF certified calibration experts or invest in calibration tools themselves.
While there's no guarantee that EZCal could make it past the concept stage, some C-Labs projects have transformed into actual products. Using the sensor array of modern smartphones to intuitively calibrate televisions is a brilliant concept that could improve your viewing experience by several notches. Even if EZCal doesn't go past the concept stage, others could hopefully replicate this promising idea.
Notably, EZCal is a part of Samsung's C-Lab project, which facilitates the incubation of innovative projects that usually fizzle out after CES, but some do turn into successful products. Samsung has unveiled three other C-Lab projects at this year's CES. These include a portable oxygen storage device dubbed Air Pocket, Scan&Drive IoT solution for laundry care, and Food&Sommelier app with a culinary focus.
