Few more updates on Corephotonics vs Apple lawsuit:
Corephotonics technology has been licensed and is used by Samsung and Oppo, so far.
The full text of the legal document that was filed in the court on November 6, 2017 is available here. There are few interesting quotes about the dual camera underlying technology:
"In Corephotonics’ dual-aperture camera, the second camera with telephoto lens provides much higher optical resolution than the wide angle camera. Images from both of these cameras can be fused together using computational algorithms to create a continuous zoom that is a combination of digital and optical zoom.
16. For video, which captures thirty or more frames per second, Corephotonics discovered that implementing image fusion for each frame demands higher than normal processing resources and battery drain. At the same time, the beneficial pixel finesse achieved by image fusion is less observable at the rapid frame rate of HD video due to human perception limits. In the Corephotonics dual-aperture camera, therefore, image fusion is only used when taking still pictures, but not for video. In video, when zooming in, digital zoom is used first on the image from the wide angle camera only and then switched to the image from the telephoto camera only. When zooming back out, a similar transition happens from using the telephoto camera only, switching back to the wide angle camera only. This approach minimizes resources and power. Because the two lenses are different and necessarily view the subject from different points of view, Corephotonics developed special techniques to ensure that the transition from the wide lens to the telephoto lens and back would be smooth. Corephotonics filed for and received patents on its dual-aperture camera and the related computational optics, including the ’291 and ’152 patents.
18. As one of its first acts as a company, Corephotonics reached out to Apple in the hopes of establishing a strategic partnership. Corephotonics received many encouraging reports and positive feedback from Apple about its technology, but the parties never concluded a license to the Corephotonics technology. In fact, after one failed effort to negotiate a license, Apple’s lead negotiator expressed contempt for Corephotonics’ patents, telling Dr. Mendlovic and others that even if Apple infringed, it would take years and millions of dollars in litigation before Apple might have to pay something.
19. In January 2016, Corephotonics learned that among the new iPhones Apple would introduce later that year was an iPhone 7 Plus with a dual-aperture camera—precisely the technology Corephotonics claimed in its patents."
Samsung and Oppo do not dual lens cameras that can compete with Apple. It says that the Corephotonics technology is not the same as Apple's and is inferior.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on what you compare. Samsung Note8 has a tele F# 2.4, while iPhone 7 and 8 have F# 2.8. Also, Note8 has dual OIS on both wide and tele parts. In terms of tele F# and dual OIS, only iPhone X matched that.
DeleteIt's not just F# and OIS. I think what matters are the software algorithms that combine the 2 images under various circumstances.
ReplyDelete