Apple files patent for dual-sensor camera design

 

 

Here’s yet another breadcrumb along the trail of Apple’s imaging aspirations: Apple Insider dug up a patent application for a dual-sensor camera design.

In this setup one camera would capture luminance data, while the other would capture color. The two shots would be processed and stacked together, naturally. This design will allow for thinner camera modules, and an improved signal-to-noise ratio, according to the filing. In the document, the module is illustrated as part of a laptop, though there’s no reason that a similar setup wouldn’t work in a phone, tablet, or some other type of mobile device.

 

The patent application portrays the design as part of a laptop, but it could work with other mobile devices, too.

This isn’t the first design we’ve seen in the past few years to incorporate dedicated sites for brightness capture—it’s not all that dissimilar to the RGBW sensors that have been in development, where one of the two green filters in the typical Bayer pattern is replaced with a transparent filter element.

Of course, as with all patents, this design may never materialize, but it’s one more sign that Apple is working toward moving more of its camera development inside of its own walls.

(Via DPReview, Apple Insider)