What’s a liquid lens digital camera? expertise defined | Tech Ops

(Pocket-lint) – Xiaomi introduced a primary when it launched its Mi Combine Fold foldable telephone in spring 2021: it was the primary to make use of liquid-lens digital camera expertise in a smartphone.

Additionally it is advisable to contemplate it for a future machine.

However what’s liquid lens digital camera expertise and what advantages can it have for telephone pictures?

What’s liquid lens digital camera expertise?

Liquid lens is a comparatively new digital camera expertise (for smartphones, anyway) that replaces an present static optical glass lens. It embeds optical grade liquid in the midst of a mobile construction and works extra just like the lens of a watch.

It permits the lens itself to maneuver and alter form, both mechanically or electronically, benefiting each the velocity of focus and the focal size that may be achieved.

Altering its form permits the identical lens to operate as two (or extra) various kinds of a standard lens, similar to a telephoto lens for zooming in on distant pictures, and a macro lens for specializing in objects near the digital camera. For telephones, this implies you need to use a single lens to carry out a number of capabilities, thereby decreasing the variety of sensors wanted contained in the telephone. It’s one thing that Xiaomi has highlighted with its Mi Combine Fold telephone.

The modern Liquid Lens expertise works like a human eye. It is smaller and may focus quicker and extra precisely, with telephoto and macro capabilities. #MyMIXFOLD #XiaomiMegaLaunch pic.twitter.com/cs9QtjKhJZ

—Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) March 30, 2021

One other good thing about liquid lens expertise is that as a result of the digital camera’s lens unit comprises liquid, optical picture stabilization may be improved. The lens floats, so it is much less affected by digital camera shake.

Liquid lens cameras are historically utilized in industrial conditions, the place mechanical lenses are neither sensible nor sustainable. Since they work properly in smaller sizes, their use in telephones has been anticipated for some time.

What corporations provide liquid lens expertise in telephones?

In the meanwhile, solely Xiaomi has launched a liquid lens digital camera telephone. One of many three lenses on the Xiaomi Mi Combine Fold foldable telephone can shoot each telephoto and macro pictures due to liquid lens expertise.

In actual fact, Huawei was regarded as an early adopter of the expertise, due to a patent published May 2020. However, it has yet to appear in a consumer phone.

Written by Rik Henderson.