Singing Voice Conversion: Training AI on Distressed Vocals

Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:06:51 GMT

Have you ever tried singing? What about extreme rock vocal techniques, like hoarse vocals? What about doing it the same way across time? This singing technique is not as easy as it seems and requires consistent skills especially if you do it long-term. Sometimes the voice changes but the singing style should remain the same.

Best Open-Source AI Music Generator 2026

Thu, 21 May 2026 08:40:08 GMT

Every couple of weeks, another open-source ai music generator model launches with a headline claiming Suno parity. Sometimes it is the abstract, sometimes a benchmark table column, sometimes a curated thread on X, but the claim is always the same: the open community has caught up. We went looking for independent head-to-head comparisons and could not find enough good material. We get asked about open-weights song generation often enough that we wanted somewhere honest to point. So we ran the comparison ourselves, on the May 2026 slate of models we could load and run. The short answer: no, there is not an open-source Suno yet. The closest model, by our ears, gets within audible-but-real distance of Suno V5 on some prompts and trails on others; everything else trails further. DiffRhythm 2 makes the same call in its own paper: “Open-source still falls short of commercial systems overall.” 🔗 . We agree. The rest of this post is the longer version of why. The model that produced the most natural-sounding music carries a non-commercial license.

AI 3D Generation: From Prototype to Production

Tue, 05 May 2026 18:32:24 GMT

Today, there is almost no digital field where 3D assets haven't found their place: CGI, games, VR/AR, physics simulations, fashion design, marketplace product renders - you name it. Over the past decades, this spread into everyday life and transformed the 3D modeler role from a programmer in an engineering lab to an artist using specialized software. With the controversial, yet revolutionary AI advancements in generating text, images, video, and music, it seems only natural that 3D generation should be product-ready out of the box, requiring at most a thin wrapper over an API call. But, here’s the twist: that is simply not the case. So, how big is the gap between expectations and reality in AI-based 3D asset generation exactly, and is there a way to breach it right now?

SAM Audio: Redefining Sound with Multi-Modal AI

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 16:15:15 GMT

If you've ever tapped on a person in an Instagram photo and watched them lift cleanly from the background as a sticker – that's Meta's Segment Anything Model working quietly behind the scenes. Instagram's Cutouts feature, confirmed by Meta to be built on SAM, turned what used to be a careful manual masking job into a single tap. And with SAM 3, released in late 2025, the model took another step: it added text prompting. Instead of clicking, you can now type "yellow school bus" into a video and the model finds it, segments it, and tracks it through every frame. Now Meta has brought the same thinking to audio. SAM Audio, released by Meta's Superintelligence Labs in December 2025, does for sound what SAM did for images. Describe it, point to it in a video frame, or mark a moment in the timeline of a waveform where it's clearly audible and the model separates it from everything else. One model covering tasks that previously each required their own specialized system: speech denoising, stem separation, speaker diarisation, instrument isolation, arbitrary sound extraction – the full range of audio processing services now addressable through a single promptable interface. As a foundation in multi-modal ai, it unifies text, vision, and temporal cues into a single generative system for sound. In this blog, we'll walk through what the model can do, how well it actually performs in practice, and what the paper contributes to the audio AI field – including some details worth paying close attention to if you're thinking about integrating or building on this technology. The most natural way to think about SAM Audio is as a model with three different input channels, each suited to a different situation. They can be used independently or combined for more precise control.

MediaPipe Pose Estimation for Sports Apps: Deep Dive, Deployment, and Limitations

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:43:00 GMT

Human pose estimation has emerged as a cornerstone technology in next-gen fitness and video analysis applications. For sports startups and developers building AI-powered coaching or performance tracking apps, real-time posture and movement analysis unlocks new value far beyond step counters or GPS tracking. Pose estimation is becoming foundational in AI-powered sports training where real-time feedback and motion tracking outperform legacy wearables. Among available pose estimation frameworks, Google’s MediaPipe stands out as a popular choice for mobile-first MVPs. It’s fast, lightweight, and surprisingly production-ready but it also comes with its own quirks and architectural trade-offs. This article explores: Why MediaPipe is often chosen for sports AI prototypes

Beyond Smartwatches: Building AI Athlete Performance Apps with Pose Estimation

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:52:41 GMT

Wearable fitness trackers and smartwatches have become standard gear for athletes, collecting metrics like heart rate, speed, and distance. However, these devices often fail to provide insights into how the movement was performed. Enter pose estimation , a computer vision technique that extracts biomechanical data from video, opening up new frontiers in sports performance tracking, sports analytics, and sports analytics software. Traditional tracking answers "what happened" such as steps taken, GPS distance, or calories burned. But high-performance training and injury prevention demand deeper insights into how the athlete moved. Pose estimation enables that by analyzing joint angles, symmetry, sequencing, and compensation patterns, offering new capabilities in sports analytics and sports analytics software. Using just smartphone video, pose estimation software can turn visual input into a detailed map of joint movement without expensive motion capture labs. This opens up scalable applications in sports performance tracking, enabling remote coaching, video analysis , and rehab monitoring.

AI for Musicians: The New Creative Process

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:32:20 GMT

In 2020, Billie Eilish swept the Grammys: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist. The album that won it all was recorded in her brother's childhood bedroom on a setup that cost less than $3,000. Accepting the award, producer Finneas dedicated it to "all the kids making music in your bedroom." A decade earlier, this would have been unthinkable. For most of recording history, making a professional record meant booking expensive studio time, hiring engineers, and accessing gear that cost more than a house. Digital audio workstations changed that. Today, a laptop and a $200 microphone can produce Grammy-winning music. Beyond cost, something bigger shifted: who gets to create. And every step of the way, skeptics asked the same questions: Is this real music? Is this cheating? Will this replace real artists? Now, AI is the next wave. And the questions sound exactly the same.

AI Music Technology for Piano Transcription

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:53:34 GMT

AI music technology is becoming a critical layer in modern digital products. Music education platforms, creative software, rights management systems, and large-scale media services increasingly rely on accurate and fast transcription to unlock value from audio data. In our work with AI music processing systems, we see that traditional transformer-based approaches, while accurate, are often expensive to operate and difficult to scale. This article outlines how Mamba , a selective state-space model architecture, enables high-performance, cost-efficient AI music technology suitable for real-time and production environments. Hands-on research and experimentation behind this work was done by Roman Bernikov, who focused on model architecture choices, evaluation methodology, and performance optimization. Efficient transcription underpins many real-world AI music technology products, including:

Segmentation Guide for iOS: Top 4 Models in 2026

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 07:52:38 GMT

Segmentation has quietly become one of the most useful tools in modern tech. Whether it's helping doctors analyze medical images , powering AR effects, tracking objects, or making photo editing smarter, segmentation plays a key role behind the scenes. By identifying and isolating objects or regions within an image, it unlocks powerful capabilities that enhance user experiences across industries. Businesses leverage segmentation in a variety of ways: beauty and fashion apps use it for virtual try-ons, fitness apps analyze body posture, e-commerce platforms enable interactive product previews, and accessibility tools detect and describe visual content for users with impairments.

Constant Color API: Technology Review & Demos

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 13:27:37 GMT

The human visual system adapts to a wide range of lighting conditions, from warm sunlight to the cool glow of office fixtures. Yet, a smartphone camera applies numerous system-level processing steps and enhancements. As a result, the same color sample can appear differently under varying illumination or on different devices. In a professional environment, such inconsistency leads to significant waste of time and resources. In this article, the It-Jim mobile app development team explores how smartphones process images, what factors influence color consistency, and examines the Constant Color API presented by Apple.

Computer Vision Technology Costs: Key Factors & Use Cases

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:45:42 GMT

How much does computer vision technology cost? To make a long story short, the rough cost of the basic AI vision software or pilot project starts at $30,000. The more advanced computer vision solution costs around $100,000 or higher. The overall cost of the computer vision project depends on its complexity, data acquisition processes, integration requirements, compliance and security matters, as well as specifications of hardware and software components. Additionally, consider price variations concerning industry-specific use cases, annual maintenance costs, and the selected team of CV experts working on the project. For accurate budgeting, it is essential to evaluate all these factors.

Extended Reality Project: Code Samples & Demos

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:17:05 GMT

The Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (XR) markets continue to evolve and grow rapidly. Once the stuff of science fiction, it is now part of the future reality. Precedence Research predicts rapid growth in the AR and VR market over the next decade, as illustrated in the graph below. Users are increasingly interested in portable XR devices, driven by the emergence of spatial devices such as Apple Vision Pro and Meta Glasses . These platforms have normalized gesture-based interaction, especially the pinch gesture, as a natural way to control virtual content.

3D Reconstruction on iOS: Ultimate Guide with Code Samples

Wed, 21 May 2025 11:07:08 GMT

In the fast-changing world of mobile technology, 3D model reconstruction on handheld devices is a big leap forward. Algorithms like SLAM, Voxel-Based Reconstruction, and Point Cloud Reconstruction help create 3D models from captured images. Traditionally, these computationally intensive processes required desktop computers. In contrast, mobile devices are limited to data collection due to their constrained CPU/GPU, memory, and storage. Apple's ObjectCapture has changed the game. It enables high-quality 3D model creation directly on mobile devices.

Fiducial Markers Overview: Types, Use Cases, & Comparison Table

Wed, 14 May 2025 07:18:48 GMT

Accurate data tracking and measurement are constant challenges in numerous use cases. Can fiducial markers become a solution? Let’s find out. For instance, the medical industry requires colossal accuracy, and even a 1 millimetre deviation can jeopardize a surgery's outcome. Misaligned virtual surfaces in AR can disorient users. For instance, some objects may appear closer than their physical counterparts.

RoomPlan is Awful and it's Great!

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 15:39:32 GMT

RoomPlan is a powerful framework from Apple designed for the fast and convenient creation of 3D models of rooms, using augmented reality (AR) technologies and LiDAR scanning capabilities. In our previous article , we reviewed the basic functions of RoomPlan, such as session setup, the structure of core components, and the specifics of output data. We explored how this tool can interact with the surrounding space to transform your rooms into a 3D model. At first glance, RoomPlan is an impeccable tool for modeling rooms and indoor spaces. Its features might seem exhaustive for many tasks: automatic object recognition , real-time 3D model creation, and export capabilities. All this provides broad possibilities for developers, interior designers, and AR enthusiasts seeking a tool for quick and efficient work with room spaces, visualization, and presentation. However, like many modern technologies, RoomPlan has darker sides worth considering. Despite its progressive features, this framework has several limitations and drawbacks that can significantly impact the final result and may require developers to put in extra effort to overcome them. In this article, we will look at the key issues one might encounter when working with RoomPlan and explain why this tool may not be as perfect as it appears.

Barcode Safari: Exploring the iOS Scan Frontier

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 14:18:59 GMT

Recently, we encountered a task in one of our projects involving the development of a product management system for a large warehouse. The system needed accurate and efficient barcode detection to streamline inventory tracking, reduce human errors, and optimize workflows. We have different options to tackle this problem. Should we use a dedicated barcode detection technology, or integrate barcode detection within an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) framework? Let's try both and find out! After thorough investigation, we selected four libraries for detailed research: Vision, MLKit, ZXingObjC, and SwiftyTesseract. The main challenge was ensuring that the system could scan and identify multiple types of barcodes quickly and with high accuracy. Given the scale of the warehouse operations, performance and reliability were critical factors.

Apple’s ARKit vs. Eye Fatigue

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 15:16:53 GMT

In today’s world, digital devices dominate our daily lives, with significant time spent in front of screens - computers, smartphones, tablets, etc. While this lifestyle is an inevitable part of modern life, it also places substantial strain on our eyes. For many, eye fatigue has become a routine part of life, and if ignored, it can result in serious health issues. Key symptoms of the problem are: poor sleep , light sensitivity , reduced productivity Obviously when having respective symptoms one should, first and foremost, reduce the screentime. However this is not always possible. Another way is to do Eye Exercises. An application which guides a person through a set of exercises would be beneficial. And that’s what we’re going to create today. Key feature of an eye training app would be eye tracking. Eye movement tracking helps accurately assess exercise completion and ensures appropriate feedback for the user.

Face It! Apple’s Vision Framework Makes Image Processing Simple

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 11:42:57 GMT

Apple’s Vision Framework is a powerful tool for computer vision that allows developers to integrate broad capabilities of computer vision into their apps, even with the use of custom machine learning models. It works on devices running iOS 11.0+ and offers real-time, on-device processing without requiring constant internet access, LiDAR sensors, or the latest high-performance chips. The key features we will explore: Face Detection

AI Video Generation Tools

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 20:57:36 GMT

Just over a year ago, ChatGPT became a household name, capturing the imagination of nearly everyone. Before we could fully grasp the potential of advanced language models , the world was dazzled by the emergence of visual generation models, showcasing their ability to create stunning images. And just as we were starting to understand the impact of image generation, video generation models began making waves. 3D generation is going through the same transition right now. The two fields also connect in practice: generated 3D geometry gives video models the spatial consistency that frame-by-frame synthesis struggles to maintain. Our article AI 3D Generation: From Prototype to Production covers where 3D generation stands today and what a production pipeline looks like. Despite the fact that this field is still at the relative beginning of its development (everyone remembers the meme that appeared a year ago, hence the “relative”🙂), everyone can touch the sublime and create their own spaghetti-eating bizarre character. In this blog post, we’ll explore some popular services accessible even to non-tech-savvy people, alongside sophisticated techniques for creating videos right on your personal computer: PixVerse Pika

Top Free Chat GPT-3 Alternatives for Developers & Businesses

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 21:42:36 GMT

Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as highly successful and widely adopted AI technologies in recent times. Major players in the industry, including OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Meta, and Microsoft, leverage these models either for their products or to offer access to them. Among the current LLMs, GPT-3 (Generative Pretrained Transformer) and its successor, GPT-4, reign supreme in terms of popularity. Developed and released by OpenAI, GPT-3 possesses the remarkable ability to generate text that closely resembles human language. It has been put to the test across various domains, including poetry, chatbots (such as ChatGPT), machine translation, QA, and even coding. All GPT-3 required to generate such content is a prompt with instructions expressed in human language.

It-Jim's R&D blog