“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple a patent for a camera system that uses three separate sensors, one for luminance and two for chrominance, to generate images with both higher resolution and color accuracy,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,497,897 for ‘Image capture using luminance and chrominance sensors’ describes a unique multi-sensor camera system that can be used in portable devices like the iPhone,” Campbell reports. “The main thrust of the patent is to combine three separate images generated by one luminance sensor disposed between two chrominance sensors. Each sensor has a ‘lens train,’ or lens assembly, in front of it that directs light toward the sensor surface.”
Campbell reports, “While Apple is unlikely to implement the three-sensor camera tech anytime soon, a future iPhone could theoretically carry such a platform.”
Read more, and see Appel patent application illustrations and diagrams, in the full article here.