Omnivision Proposes Dual Camera Module

CDM Optics division of Omnivision applied for a patent US20130105925 "Integrated Die-Level Cameras And Methods Of Manufacturing The Same" by Dennis Gallagher, Adam Greengard, Paulo Silveira, Chris Linnen, Vladislav Chumachenko, and Jungwon Aldinger. The application proposes to combine two different cameras on a single die and package them in a single package:

"As devices have become increasingly sophisticated, the level of functional specialization of each camera has increased. For example, typical applications may require one main camera with higher resolution, image quality and dimensions and at least one additional camera with lesser requirements, e.g., lower resolution, cost, dimensions, image quality, etc. Some particular devices may include more than two cameras, each having specialized requirements. Some of these cameras may not be used for image capture, but are instead included to carry out such functions as, for example, determining whether a face is present in its field of view, detecting light level, recognizing gestures, etc." The solution is to make a camera module like this: