While most smartphone cameras collect image data through a single sensor, Apple has filed a patent to create a camera that uses a light-splitting prism-shaped sensor rather than a flat one - effectively meaning it'll have three sensors. This would split light coming into the camera into red, green and blue colour channels, with sensors then capturing the data for each of these colours individually. Such a camera would result in better-quality, less blurry images, because it wouldn't rely on demosaicing - the process by which smartphone cameras 'fill in' colour information in an image to make up for the imperfect way that smartphone camera sensors absorb the colours. A prism-shaped sensor would inevitably make the iPhone a little bit chubbier, which may divide opinions among the phone's designers. Today, there's an inexplicable trend towards making phones as thin as possible at the expense of battery and potentially groundbreaking features. Will Apple be prepared to give up the precious millimetres to introduce this feature? It's quite possible that this revolutionary sensor would be integrated into an optical zoom lens for the iPhone, which Apple filed a patent for around a similar time. This lens would come out of the side of the phone, and have a 'periscope' design, so the phone wouldn't have to be too much thicker to accommodate it.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
