Apple users generally don’t have much in the way of complaints regarding the design of the iPhone, but if there’s one thing that has consistently drawn criticism over the last few years, its the camera bump on the back of the iPhone. It’s one of the prices that users have to pay for having such a thin smartphone, but that hasn’t stopped countless people from complaining about the annoying camera bump. Apple must be listening, because the company recently patented a new camera design that would remove the need for the camera bump without having to make the iPhone thicker.
While those of us who would happily trade thinner iPhones for better battery-life may be in the minority, even fans of ultra-thin phones expressed disappointment at the camera bump in the iPhone 6 and 6s. The problem Apple faced is that the laws of physics determine just how thin you can make a sensor and lens arrangement for any given aperture while retaining quality. But a patent application originally filed in 2013, continued last July and granted today could provide a solution. Instead of the usual flat sensor, the patent describes a ‘spherically curved photosensor’ that would allow the distance between the lens elements and the sensor to be reduced, allowing for a thinner camera module. The patent describes the conflict you normally get between thin camera modules and image quality. “The advent of small, mobile multipurpose devices such as smartphones and tablet or pad devices has resulted in a need for high-resolution, small form factor cameras for integration in the devices. However, due to limitations of conventional camera technology, conventional small cameras used in such devices tend to capture images at lower resolutions and/or with lower image quality than can be achieved with larger, higher quality cameras.”
