Omnivision patent application US20140320715 "Imaging systems and methods using square image sensor for flexible image orientation" by Bahman Haji-khamneh, Harish Iyer, and Vinoo Margasahayam, implements this feature with a single square image sensor:
There is prior art on this concept.
ReplyDeleteUnited States Patent: 8233052
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,233,052.PN.&OS=PN/8,233,052&RS=PN/8,233,052
See FIG. 9:
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=08233052&PageNum=5&IDKey=CC86A1A9B65D&HomeUrl=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%26Sect2=HITOFF%26p=1%26u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html%26r=1%26f=G%26l=50%26co1=AND%26d=PTXT%26s1=8,233,052.PN.%26OS=PN/8,233,052%26RS=PN/8,233,052
Beside thinking that replacing to 90° rotated cameras by one square format is quite obvious, I cannot imagine that the overall concept of 90° rotated camera is meaningful. (The preview monitor has the wrong orientation, when the rotated sensor is used. This is not the case when you simply rotate the whole phone by 90°.)
ReplyDeleteSo I would be surprised if this really becomes a trend... (But maybe I simply think to much technical and too less marketing like) Or they plan to use this feature in a different device, not a typical smart phone.
BTW: We do rotated read-out of ROIs of larger sensors since many many years...
Thomas
"One of the recent mobile phone trends"... really? Any evidence for that?
ReplyDeleteTrend or not, but such cameras are starting to appear on the market. See example in the post.
DeleteON Semi (Aptina, and previously Avago/Agilent), already shipped a mobile image sensor with this feature in 2001-2003.
ReplyDeleteCan you please provide a reference (link) ?
DeleteThanks.