New Apple Patient shows off new radical iPhone camera design

“The iPhone camera, versatile as it is, remains significantly restricted when compared to devices such as DSLRs which are designed to accept interchangeable lenses,” Paul Monckton writes for Forbes. “More adventurous photographers have for many years turned to add-on lenses such as those from Olloclip and Moment as a way of supplementing the iPhone’s capabilities with wide-angle, telephoto, macro and even fisheye options. However, these lenses bring with them an inevitable reduction in image quality.”

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“Now, a recently granted patent reveals how Apple could dramatically improve the quality of add-on lenses by incorporating specialized supporting hardware within the iPhone itself,” Monckton writes. “US Patent No. 10,031,312 describes a ‘small format camera system for mobile devices’ which can detect when an external lens is being used and automatically apply adjustments and corrections to mitigate any quality-reducing factors.”

“The external lens could be detected either directly with specially designed sensors or by inspecting captured images for tell-tale distortions. The clever part, however, is how the then makes adjustments to optimize image quality,” Monckton writes. “This is achieved in several ways, including mechanically altering the position of the phone’s built-in lens in one or more axes to ensure perfect alignment, as well as through image processing after taking the photo.”

Read more in the full article here.