Company claims to have found the solution to zoom with curved sensors

Last July, Sony showed off the first images captured with its curved sensor. As with most bleeding-edge technology, the concept of a curved sensor raised both eyebrows and concerns, one of the latter being zoom capabilities of concave sensors.

But one company seems confident they’ve found a solution to adding zoom capabilities to curved sensors. Optiz, based out of Palo Alto, says they have created a variable-density sensor design that ‘enables greater sensitivity, lower module profile, superior zooming and dynamic focusing capabilities all without moving parts.’

Optiz’s description of the technology is vague, full of marketing speak, but the basic premise relies on the concept of making the pixels of the sensor more dense towards the center.

One particular image displays a set of lenses in front of the proposed sensor design, but it’s plausible this could be used for digital zoom as well. It’s also worth pointing out that Optiz mentions ‘mobile imaging’ which could point to this being aimed more at the mobile phone market than larger-sensor cameras.

One way or another, it’s interesting tech that could certainly have a dramatic impact if it’s as capable as Optiz claims. Even if it does prove effective, it’s still unknown whether curved sensors are the future or just another fad that will soon pass.

(Image Sensors World)