LG patent suggests a smartphone with a penta-camera is coming

The last internationally released five-camera-toting smartphone was HMD's Nokia 9 PureView. But this configuration got a refresh with the recent launch from Chinese company Xiaomi, who just unveiled the Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro/Xiaomi Mi Note 10. And if we follow this LG patent, it looks like the South Korean company wants a piece of the action, too.

The plans seem to have been a long time coming. The patent was filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization back in March 2018. It was only approved in May of this year. The cameras at the back look to be arranged with three lenses vertically and two lenses horizontally. There also looks to be an LED flash thrown in there at the center of the two lenses.

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Here's a look at Lenovo's double-folded 'clamshell' smartphone

Before we talk about anything, we're going to say that it's a patent, for now. But Lenovo hinted in the past that a foldable RAZR phone is in the works—and this might be what it looks like. In March last year, Lenovo filed a patent for a "flexible electronic device" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It was a double-hinged folding phone design for the RAZR phone, and it was due for launch at this year's Mobile World Congress. But the deadline proved to be too tight to present the final product.

This week on September 10th, the patent was published in both the USPTO database and the World Intellectual Property Office Global Design Database. It shows 14 sketches of a folding phone with a clamshell design. The device comes with two separate hinges, letting you fold it in a way that shows the very top of the screen or to fold and show more of the display. The sketches show a thin device with rounded edges and small bezels. The upper bezel houses the front camera and speaker, while the bottom bezel has a secondary speaker. There looks like light-ribbed plastic material at the back along with the fingerprint sensor and a single rear camera. The RAZR phone is rumoured to come out in Europe between December 2019 and January 2020 for around €1500 (approx. CA$2,200).

Source: MSPowerUser 

LG’s newest patent introduces 16-lens smartphone camera

What’s one, two, or three camera setups in a phone when you can have 16? LG is looking to set itself apart from the competition with its newest camera patent. The company might eventually plan to release a smartphone with a 16-camera array in a 4 x 4 matrix. The goal here is that these multiple cameras will be able to offer different angles of a scene with the help of these different lenses. And the different datasets these lenses provide could potentially cut out things from an image—say changing the background a bit, fixing a blink or the like. The lenses could also be made on a flat surface or approached with a concave curve. The latter could possibly give 3D information about a scene, producing some interesting photos.

Aside from that there’s also the possibility of creating mini films, which The Verge describes as something like “superpowered version” of Apple’s Live Photos or Lytro’s adjustable light field images. But at the moment, we need to remember that this is a patent and doesn’t necessarily mean it could happen. Although at the rate smartphone innovation is going, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see an LG device sporting this camera setup.

Source: ExtremeTech

Samsung patent shows possible intro of face and iris scanning in future phones

Samsung has just been granted a patent by the US Patent Office for a 2014 filing of biometric camera that has both iris and 3D face recognition. This feature is designed to work in the dark and has eye tracking, too. We can’t say if it’ll show up in upcoming devices coming out soon, like the Galaxy Note 9. But we will be keeping an eye out for it in 2019.

Source: CNET