New York (NY Tomorrow) Apple is once again going to take a revolutionary step in camera technology. A patent filed by the company recently shows that it is working on an image sensor technology in future iPhones that will be able to sense light like the human eye. If this technology becomes a reality, it could surpass not only mobile cameras, but also many professional film cameras.
Dynamic range is how well a camera can preserve the dark and light parts of an image at the same time. The human eye can handle a dynamic range of about 20 to 30 stops, while most smartphone cameras are limited to only 10 to 13 stops. Apple’s new research aims to close that gap.
According to Apple’s patent, this sensor will be based on ‘stacked pixels’. This means that the camera will consist of two layers. One layer will absorb the light and the other will process it, performing noise reduction, exposure control and other advanced functions.
Apple’s new sensor uses a special system called ‘Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor (LOFIC)’. Through this technology, each pixel will absorb a different amount of light according to the brightness of the scene. This will have the advantage that both the highlights and shadows will appear in full detail in the same image.
Each pixel in the sensor will have a separate memory circuit that will measure and eliminate electrical noise as the image is captured. In this way, the image will have less green or fog and will have a clear and transparent result, without you having to edit separately.
Currently it is only a patent, meaning the initial stage of research and experimentation. This feature may not be available immediately. According to current reports, this is unlikely to happen in the iPhone 17, but we can definitely see a glimpse of it in the next models.
If Apple really succeeds in creating a smartphone camera with a dynamic range of 20 stops, it would be a huge breakthrough for mobile photography. A phone that shows what we see with our eyes, without the difference in lighting, without losing detail. As such, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that this new iPhone will indeed be worth the upgrade.
