A new report out of The Korea Herald suggests that the next major iteration of Apple’s flagship smartphone offering could arrive with a 3D-capable camera system.
Per the translated excerpt:
“Apple is now studying how to apply its 3D camera technology into LG Innotek’s smartphone camera,” the report which cites unnamed sources, reads. “Since LG Innotek also has its own 3D camera and related technologies, such joint efforts [are] likely to bear fruit sometime within [the] next year.”
The method is in particular said to use the technology that Apple acquired from Israeli start-up LinX in 2015 to “add depth to photos,” through a process that would “divid[e] the image in three stages.”
The Foldable iPhone
The report arrives just hours after a filing was discovered at the U.S patent and trademark office, in which Apple appeared to depict a fully foldable version of the iPhone.
“The images within Apple’s patented design shows a mockup of a clamshell device that looks similar to the Nintendo 3DS,” Forbes writes on the finding.
As for how it would work? …
“[...] The conductive carbon nanotube paths described in the patent would enable an iPhone to be flexible and resistant to cracking. And the patent says that plastic, glass, ceramics, metal, fiber composites or a combination of two or more of those materials could also be used for a foldable smartphone.”
While it’s currently unclear whether both of the above described additions will make into the next iPhone, analysts would appear to be confident towards the 2018 version of Apple’s smartphone carrying -at the very minimum- a camera capable of taking 3D imagery.
Related: The Foldable, Flexible iPhone
/ Image Credit: 9to5Mac
/ iClarified