With the advancement of technology, everything is getting compact, sleek and stylish. From the old generation room-sized computers to the portable and slim notebooks the electronics and communications are getting flexible and slender. Working on the same token, the engineers of Germany’s Fraunhofer institute developed a camera module which can be placated inside the chassis without forcing the need of camera bump.
On Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona on February 28, 2017, the Fraunhofer institute showed a prototype camera image sensor. The concept is really impressive but you might worry a bit about the image quality, isn’t it? Let me clear the doubt that the concept model which is 3.5 mm of height; comparatively half the height of the current commercial unit can snap pictures without any quality compromisation. The company says that the prototype camera sensor can capture with the resolution of 20MP. It also features auto-focus and optical image stabilization.
The unique ‘no camera bump’ concept
The prototype ‘no-bump’ camera model has a unique working principle. It has four image sensors rotating 90 degrees to cover the large angle pointing outside the phone. There are tiny mirrors in front of the sensors that reflects the image from the front and rear end.
At a close range a single mirror is enough, according to Jacques Duparre; a senior scientist at Fraunhofer’s Microoptical Imaging system Lab. Hence, the system uses two mirrors to cover a wider range. The image reflection in both the mirrors will then be stitched. But due to some left-out stitching errors, the second set of sensors and mirrors were added to the prototype. Consequently, the addition of the second set sports high-resolution image and wide range capture and also errors are no more.
The Fraunhofer’s micro wafer lens which they call ‘facetVISION’ camera lens (because the lens is partitioned into 135 tiny facets) depicts a wide field of vision and high resolution comparable to the current camera system.
Benefits of the prototype camera
The prototype camera will match to the modern day requirements of developing slender phone models. Also, the user gets an assurance that the phone when off the camera is incapable of taking snaps as the new image sensor camera slides out sideways. The worries of captures without the user’s knowledge will be no more.
Adopting sudden change in the camera technology demands detailed speculation. The institute is trying to convince the smartphone makers to adopt this new image capturing system. They are presenting their innovation at technical trade shows; likely at MWC held in February followed by CES held in January.
The Google has adopted the ‘no camera bump’ image sensing system in its upcoming flagship Nexus phone. But we have no information of the source the company is getting the camera system. We really are keen to see that the Fraunhofer’s new camera system will make out into the latest high-end smartphones or not.