Microsoft’s Pix camera app for iOS has been updated to automatically detect whiteboards, documents, and business cards in real time.

“Microsoft Pix is pushing the boundaries of image understanding, using AI to take better pictures of everything from a snapshot of your kid in new sneakers to the whiteboard in your morning meeting,” Microsoft’s Josh Weisberg said. “The intelligent camera app now automatically detects whiteboards, documents, and business cards in real time and intelligently adjusts camera settings for these types of photos.”

In a related post to the Microsoft AI Blog, Microsoft’s John Roach explains how the firm has improved the app, which has used AI since its inception to take better photos. (The app also received a major update this past June that added fun painting effects.)

“We all use our cameras to take photos of more than just people and places,” Roach writes. “Now, you can use the smartphone camera app to take better pictures of documents, whiteboards and business cards, too.”

The update to Pix addresses what Microsoft says was a key customer request. When you focus on an object it recognizes—again, whiteboards, documents, and business cards—it uses AI to improve the resulting image by cropping edges, boosting color and tone, sharpening focus, and tweaking the angle to render the image in a straight-on perspective.

Many will note that this is similar to how Office Lens works as well. But Microsoft says that the two apps are complementary.

“Office Lens remains the best tool to easily integrate productivity images across the suite of Office products, while Microsoft Pix is out front pushing the boundaries of using AI to take better pictures of everything from a snapshot of your kid in new sneakers to the whiteboard in your morning meeting,” Mr. Roach notes. “The research thrust behind Microsoft Pix informs innovation across apps, including Office Lens.”

Microsoft Pix is available for free from the Apple Apps Store.

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