Apple Details Revolutionary New iPhone Camera

If this recent patent filed by Apple AAPL +0.6% is anything to go by, future iPhones and similar devices could contain cameras unlike any before seen on a smartphone, including technologies as radical as multiple zooming lens elements, wobbling mirrors and even a built in periscope.

Picked up recently by the team at AppleInsider, the patent application number 20150042870 entitled, “Mirror Tilt Actuation” details a method of providing a vastly improved form of optical image stabilisation, far exceeding the capabilities of the stabilisation system found on the iPhone 6 Plus.

The outer lens element focuses incoming light onto a mirror, which then deflects the rays by 90 degrees down into the shaft of the periscope and through two separate moving groups of zoom lens elements before entering a colour splitting prism and finally reaching the image sensor.

The optical image stabilisation works by applying tiny positional adjustments to the mirror which is fitted with magnetically controlled actuators which, cause it to tilt in opposition to the typical movements of the phone when used hand held.

The wording of the patent focuses almost entirely on the new device’s image stabilisation features, but the inclusion of independent zoom lens elements is potentially far more exciting.

Apple’s patent application includes a movable mirror inside a periscopic device featuring zoom lens elements. (Image Credit: Apple)

Current smartphones are mostly fitted with fixed “prime” lenses which can’t zoom in to or out of the scene. If you’re too close to, or to far away from, your subject, you have to physically move yourself and the phone forwards or backwards – and this isn’t always possible.

In the camera world, zoom lenses and long telephoto lenses tend to protrude considerably from the front – obviously highly inconvenient for a device designed to slip into a pocket, and especially considering Apple’s obsession with keeping its devices as thin as possible. A periscope device such as the one described in this patent would allow a long lens to fit within the length of a phone rather than within its negligible depth.

Comments

[cameras]

Hi! Thanks for the great information you havr provided! You have touched on crucuial points!

[lwazi]

Visit for more information