Sony corporation has announced, via 9to5Mac, that it has developed a new type of CMOS digital image sensor that it says will dramatically improve the quality of images taken with Smartphones that implement the new technology. Gigaom, after seeing a demo, reports that the new chip technology should also lower power requirements and save space.
BGR, which also saw a demo, gives some of the technical details. First of all, the new CMOS chip is the thinnest yet developed for use in a camera, which is means it will take up less room in a Smartphone of course. The chip also uses a stacked set chip design that reduces the path length signals must follow inside the chip. This means faster speeds, but it also means the company was able to add additional functionality without increasing space or power requirements. The new functionality handles both low light and bright light environments as special circumstances and deals with them using special algorithms that allow for color and detail to remain crisp and clear, which means, less glare in bright light, and less graininess in low light.
Also, because the chip runs at a faster processing speed, shutter action can be more finely tuned, allowing for less blurring due to movement of the camera.
PC Magazine notes that the new chip and software could also be used in other devices such as standalone cameras, ePads and virtually any other device that has a small embedded camera. They also note that using a stacked chip structure should bring down production costs as well, resulting in lowered prices for consumers. Also, the camera technology advances the use of Sony’s proprietary RGBW coding technology that has demonstrated an ability to clear up low noise in images.
In addition to all that, the magazine also says that the new technology also allows for High Dynamic Range (HDR) Movie functionality, which means video recorded with the same Smartphones should have the same benefits as still images, meaning that Sony has figured out a way to improve video quality without having to up the resolution.
In the announcement, Sony said that the new technology should be ready to ship to manufacturers by March of this year, which means Smartphones that have it should be ready for sale by mid to late summer. No word yet on which phone makers are likely to bite first, but the editors at PC Magazine are betting that the next iteration of Apple’s Smartphone will have it, and more.