Apple Patents A Light-Splitting iPhone Camera Sensor System

Apple has secured a new patent (via AppleInsider) for a special three sensor camera designed for thin, wireless devices like the iPhone. The three sensors would each capture a separate color component, as divided by a special light-splitting cube that would divide up light entering the camera into red, green and blue (or other color set) wavelengths.

Why? Better resolution and lower noise thanks since they don’t need special filters or algorithms to separate out the color information of a captured image on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Apple would be able to potentially boost the image quality of its mobile cameras, especially in video capture scenarios, using this tech.

The challenges would be that this would be a much more expensive technology to implement vs. current iPhone camera arrays, and that it would likely also take up more space inside the case in terms of component parts, which is something Apple typically wants to avoid. But more accurate colors and better low-light performance might balance out those downsides, depending on how much Apple can minimize the parts required.

Apple has been pushing its camera tech further with each successive generation of the iPhone, making sure that it remains generally considered among the best smartphone cameras available. It’s the most-used camera on the planet, according to Flickr’s stats, and it’s not surprising to see them searching ways to continue to press their lead.

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