iPhone 6 Camera Could Take ‘Super-Resolution’ Photos

Apple appears to be putting great thought into the iPhone's camera. A new patent published today (May 8) by the US Patent & Trademark Office shows the electronics giant is developing "super-resolution based on optical image stabilization."
Optical Image Stabilization (or OIS) typically steadies an image projected on a camera's sensor by changing the optical path to the sensor in response to detected movement of the device before the image is converted into digital information. This means that if your hands are shaking as you press the shutter, the processor will compensate for your movement by detecting the direction in which you moved and correcting for that.
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According to notes in the patent filing, the camera could repeat the OIS process and make use of the multiple optical paths to capture several images from a variety of reference paths and combine them to form one super-resolution image.
In one of the drawings submitted with the application, a Super Resolution Mode option is shown in a markup of the iOS camera app, above HDR and Panorama mode options. This evidence of integration adds weight to the possibility that this feature could come to the iPhone camera app soon.

Nokia and HTC already offer OIS in their Lumia and One smartphones, but Apple's new patent appears to use the technology to create sharper pictures than just steadying them.
The Cupertino-based company also appears to have more up its sleeve for the next iPhone's camera. We've already seen plenty of rumors suggesting the iPhone 6 may sport a split camera system that captures light and color data separately for higher-quality images while retaining a slim profile. It's also possible that the next-gen iPhone could support swappable lenses.
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Yes, it doesn't matter on a 4.7" screen but it does matter when you want to print it out.
Yes, it doesn't matter on a 4.7" screen but it does matter when you want to print it out.
Don't try an make sense to him... he doesn't comprehend logical thinking.
"Nokia and HTC already offer OIS in their Lumia and One smartphones, but Apple's new patent appears to use the technology to create sharper pictures than just steadying them. "
Interesting, if you read the article, you would have caught this sentence.
It's okay, keep hating on Apple/Apple Articles based on the titles.
Look up 5s camera vs...(insert phone name here) and compare.
if i want to take a picture i will take it with a real camera,
if i want to call someone, i use a real phone
if i want to use the internent i use a real computer
i see no purpose in smartphones outside of convenience, but even than, 90% of the time they arent a phone and the one time i could have used a phone the battery was dead.
give me a dedicated phone i only use to make a call and recieve,
give me a dedicated camera which i only take pictures and video
and give me a dedicated computer which i use.
unless they sold these things closer to cost (about 250$) i cant see any reason to get one
and no, getting a 3000$ cellphone plan but paying 0-200 for the phone is not getting it cheaper.
"Nokia and HTC already offer OIS in their Lumia and One smartphones, but Apple's new patent appears to use the technology to create sharper pictures than just steadying them. "
Interesting, if you read the article, you would have caught this sentence.
Well I think both Nokia and HTC are already using their technology to create sharper pictures (the Lumia 1020 takes a 41MP high resolution all at one time and then samples this to give a better quality 8MP image), the problem with Apples new approach is that they seem to be trying to use the OIS to position the camera sensor multiple times to stitch together a image which is going to inherently have problems with motion and in times of low light where Nokia and HTC are effectively taking multiple shots (keeping the shutter open longer) with their OIS.
There are fundemental problems with capturing light here that this approach does not seem to improve for low light or capturing most scenes with motion. There are fantastic improvements that can be done with digital processing to see things in the image that the sensor was struggling to capture, but this does not appear to be one of them, instead it just appears to be something to automatically stitch together lots of stationary pictures with a 8MP sensor and oversample, we already have a better version of that in the Lumia 1020.