Business Week cites iSuppli reverse engineering of another cult phone of these days - BlackBerry Storm. The reverse engineering revealed that Storm uses Omnivision 3MP sensor. iSuppli estimates the AF-enabled camera module cost is $13.
Up for finishing that conversation about TrueFocus?
Did you catch the article at Ars Technica about the Palm Pre? I don't know if you've heard, but the Pre can't do autofocus, only EDoF. The article confirms that it's the STM/DXO chip, which can't do autofocus but only EDoF.
How important do you think it is that TrueFocus can autofocus internally while hardly anyone can even put out a non-mechanical solution, much less one that can autofocus internally?
Figures 5 and 7 describe TrueFocus's internal autofocus engine: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20060269150.pdf
I was expecting such a response. In fact, I was surprised to see Omnivision in Storm, knowing about ST design wins in RIMM.
> How important do you think it is that TrueFocus can autofocus internally while hardly anyone can even put out a non-mechanical solution, much less one that can autofocus internally?
As a matter of fact, there is another internal AF out here - Varioptic-CSI one. And Varicoptic even works on optical image stabilization now. I agree that having internal AF gives some benefits, but I'm not sure how big they are. I think cost is the most important factor in EDoF adoption. If EDoF is cheap enough - we'll see a lot of use of it.
This technique requires sequential multiple exposures (up to 9 in their demo) to capture the light-field at full sensor resolution --> will not work unless you have little-to-no movement in the scene and an extremely steady hand :-0
Love your site.
ReplyDeleteUp for finishing that conversation about TrueFocus?
Did you catch the article at Ars Technica about the Palm Pre? I don't know if you've heard, but the Pre can't do autofocus, only EDoF. The article confirms that it's the STM/DXO chip, which can't do autofocus but only EDoF.
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2009/01/ars-talks-to-palm-gets-under-the-hood-with-the-pre-ces-2009.ars
How important do you think it is that TrueFocus can autofocus internally while hardly anyone can even put out a non-mechanical solution, much less one that can autofocus internally?
Figures 5 and 7 describe TrueFocus's internal autofocus engine: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20060269150.pdf
Your site's amazing!
iSupply might want to open up another Storm - OVT are not the only source...
ReplyDeleteSTM seem to be popping up more and more.
> STM seem to be popping up more and more.
ReplyDeleteI was expecting such a response. In fact, I was surprised to see Omnivision in Storm, knowing about ST design wins in RIMM.
> How important do you think it is that TrueFocus can autofocus internally while hardly anyone can even put out a non-mechanical solution, much less one that can autofocus internally?
As a matter of fact, there is another internal AF out here - Varioptic-CSI one. And Varicoptic even works on optical image stabilization now. I agree that having internal AF gives some benefits, but I'm not sure how big they are. I think cost is the most important factor in EDoF adoption. If EDoF is cheap enough - we'll see a lot of use of it.
Yes, but Liquid Lens can't do EDoF, leaving it at a disadvantage.
ReplyDeleteI agree that EDoF is a good fixed-focus substitute, but from the reviews I've seen, people still like AF.
If EDoF isn't cheaper than fixed-focus, is it really worth it to pay up just to have a wider aperture?
There is a good discussion of related AF issues from the 2007 International Image Sensor Workshop. It might be helpful. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imagesensors.org/Past%20Workshops/2007%20Workshop/2007%20Papers/006%20Gutierrez%20et%20al.pdf
-EF
EDoF solutions make images look very flat and increase significantly the cost of the silicon :-( Cost for the optics is roughly the same.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe digital (non mechanical) AF is the future. WFC using phase modulation might not best way to go though.
Are there any other solutions that can EDoF/fixed-focus AND autofocus without light or resolution loss like Wavefront Coding can? I can't find any.
ReplyDeleteThere is ... I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. ;-)
ReplyDeleteDo you mean Refocus?
ReplyDeleteI doubt refocus is for cell phones tho. Not unless you'd want to put a full blown PC CPU in there.
ReplyDeleteLight-field based Digital Refocusing leads to loss of resolution and additional costs for the optics and the post-capture processing.
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteCheck this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ENfPYpkHp4
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThis technique requires sequential multiple exposures (up to 9 in their demo) to capture the light-field at full sensor resolution --> will not work unless you have little-to-no movement in the scene and an extremely steady hand :-0