Lately, smartphone brands have been focusing a lot on displays. Slim-bezel screens with features like high brightness and refresh rate are what the companies are counting on heavily to lure consumers. And now, it seems like MEMC or graphics motion smoothing will be the next big feature that brands are going to use to differentiate themselves from the competition.

What is MEMC?

MEMC stands for Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation. It is a frame interpolation technology that artificially adds additional frames between original frames. We’ve been seeing it on televisions for a while now, where it is used to stretch conventional 24 or 30 frames per second videos to around 60 frames per second.

Need for MEMC on Smartphones.

In recent times, phones with high-refresh-rate screens have flooded the market. From mid-range to flagships, there are hundreds of phones with 90Hz and 120Hz refresh rate screens.

However, we don’t have enough content to utilize the high-refresh rate on these screens. Most films are still shot in 24 or 30fps, while most games are capped at 60fps, limiting down the perks of a high refresh rate panel.

The MEMC technology helps solve this problem by adding extra frames in videos or games (depends on the implementation). It detects the motion in frames and tries to predict what the subsequent frames would look like. It then adds the relevant frames to make the content appear smoother with a high frame rate.