CAMERA TECHNOLOGY

Smartphone cameras are possibly the most frequently-used technology of today, catapulted to importance with the lateral rise of social media. With increasing number of users craving for cameras with superior imaging capabilities on mobile devices, companies have also taken it upon themselves to up the game, innovating in the space of mobile camera sensors, focussing techniques and optical stabilisation mechanisms, alongside using wider lenses and laser-assisted autofocus modules. Here, we take you through some of the latest, hardware-level innovations done in the field of smartphone cameras, to take them forward into the future. To make an important note, most of these technologies were once reserved for cameras only, and are only recently beginning to make their way into the smartphones.

Dual-Pixel by Samsung - Phase Detection for every pixel
Dual-Pixel is essentially Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) mechanism, only multiple times better (and faster, of course). While a number of smartphone cameras advertise PDAF, what they essentially use is a hybrid autofocus mechanism - a combination of contrast AF and PDAF. In traditional PDAF, about 5-10% of photodiodes on an image sensor act as phase-detecting agents to trace focus on a subject. While this was efficient, Samsung has simply gone ahead and used the entirety of photodiodes on a sensor to employ phase detection autofocus.

4-axis OIS on smartphones
As of now, Xiaomi has included 4-axis optical image stabilisation on the Mi 5. Yet another technology that is trickling down from cameras to smartphones, 4-axis OIS does not only use 2-axis transversal image stabilisation, but also stabilisation on a rotational axis. This not only gives a more stable imaging and video performance, but also ensures that your camera performs much better in low light conditions than the ones using 2-axis OIS.

Deep Trench Isolation on image sensors
With photodiodes corresponding to pixels absorbing lights, photons often leak out through the edges, leading to leakage of light and interference in imaging performance. With Deep Trench Isolation, a layer of light-insulating material is applied in between singular pixels to absorb to excess leakage of light, thereby clearing the sensor area of aberrations and leading to better imaging performance. Yet again, Xiaomi has applied this to its latest flagship, the Mi 5.