Although today is totally Samsung’s day, with the Galaxy S IV launching in just a few hours, we have a very interesting rumor related to Apple. The rumor is saying that Apple is working on a camera sensor with optical zoom and improved resolution for future generations of iPads and iPhones.
The new setup is described in a leaked patent application as “digital camera with light splitter”, showing a camera module with optical zoom lens, that you can fit into a portable device that is 6 to 13 mm thick and 18 to 32 mm wide. This means it may even fit inside the iPhone 5. The new camera involves a plano concave lens, that captures the incoming light and the imaging system will then use a deflector, that instead of letting the light pass through straight, it will turn it to 90 degrees.
Then it will aim the deflector at either an angled mirror or another optical element with a similar function. The system allows the camera components to be placed on the full width of the device, without increasing the bulk. This even gives enough room for a zoom lens, which was Apple’s purpose all long. There’s also a light splitter cube, that will split the light into 3 separate color components, like Red, Green and Blue and send each color out through the cube’s sides. Should we expect a Pureview level camera on the next iPad or iPhone?
