iPhone 6 could get refocus-able light field camera

A company the size of Apple puts in for a staggering amount of patents, many of which amount to nothing, but there's a recent patent that has people thinking that the iPhone 6 could have a different type of camera than we've seen on a smartphone before.

Reported by 9to5Mac is a patent granted to Apple for a light field camera, which allows people to refocus their shots after they’ve been taken.

The technology works by capturing light fields, rather than a single 2D capture of the moment. The net result is that a photo is no longer a fixed capture, but one where you can select a part of the picture to completely refocus the image.

This technology is most famously used in the Lytro Light Field camera. While an interesting technology demo (you can see a sample shot that you can refocus below), the low-resolution photos weren't much use for printing or using on high-resolution devices.

While the Lytro camera may only be of interest, if Apple can apply the same kind of technology to a higher-resolution sensor, then it could offer a completely different type of smartphone photography experience. It remains to be seen what Apple can do, as the patent refers to both a high-resolution and low-resolution mode, with the patent stating that it covers "A digital camera system configurable to operate in a low-resolution refocusable mode and a high-resolution non-refocusable mode".

As well as being smart technology, refocusing tools would fit in well with iOS. As Apple has shown with its intelligent Slo-Mo editing tools in the iPhone 5S, adding smart tools for refocussing shouldn't be a problem.

Part of the patent is listed as being prior art, which is likely down to the work done by Lytro. Of course, as with all patents, there's no indication of a launch date of the product. We've also got no further information on how Apple can or will slim down the light field sensor to fit into a smartphone. We can only hope that the company is already hard at work and we'll see something new for the iPhone 6's camera.

Andoid Games