Apple is going for an in-built Optical Zoom Lens for the next itteration of the iPhone

We have been seeing a great progress in the camera technology especially for mobile phones. Recently an Apple patent granted and published on Tuesday, titled 'Digital camera with Light Splitter', indicates that the company will be using the newly patented technology on its upcoming iPhone to give its device specialized and unique features which include:

• Pptical image stabilisation
• Color accuracy
• True zoom lens

The patent is now listed on the US Patent and Trademark Office's site, and points to a new light-splitting camera sensor system. Apple will be using a new prism technology to divide the light into components which follows

• Red
• Green 
• Blue 

The new unit will be picking up these individually with each sensor before combining them. Other color sets like CYGM and RGBE were also mentioned.

The light splitting technology seems to be the same which is employed by DSLR Camera makers such as Sony, Canon or maybe Nikon.

The abstract from the official Patent page reads,

"A digital camera component is described that has a light splitter cube having an entrance face to receive incident light from a camera scene. The cube splits the incident light into first, second, and third colour components that emerge from the cube through a first face, a second face, and a third face of the cube, respectively."

The patent goes on to describe the advantages of the new light-splitting design, such as improved colour accuracy, polarised space for a zoom lens, polarisation without brightness loss, and extraction of image data.

The Patent also reads,

"First, second, and third image sensors are provided, each being positioned to receive a respective one of the colour components that emerge from the first, second, and third faces of the cube. Other embodiments are also described and claimed"

The patent document also explains that the colour splitting cube architecture can be used in polarisation imaging stressing that it won't "throw away 50 percent of the light" as is the case in conventional polarisation imaging techniques employing filters. The document also adds that the colour splitting cube might help in "improve contrast and enhance visibility of targets in scattering media and assist in improved detection and feature extraction of targets in scattering media"

Notably, the true zoom lens feature is referred to in patent document. 

"The zooms lens may be a true zoom lens that can also maintain focus when its magnification or focal length is changed. These are also referred to as parfocal lenses."

This year Apple will make the optical zoom available in the phone by using the new Prism technology, so it seems that the next iPhone would be a great buy if you are a camera enthusiast.