Daniel Hruska Fresh acquisition of LinX is one of the most discussed that has been carried out in recent months. At around $20 million, it's not a huge merger, but the end result could have a big impact on future Apple products.
And what made the Israeli LinX interested in Apple? With its cameras for mobile devices containing multiple sensors at once. In other words, when you look at the camera, you will not see one, but multiple lenses. This technology brings with it interesting positives, whether it is a better quality of the resulting image, production costs or smaller dimensions.
Dimensions
With the same number of pixels, LinXu modules reach up to half the thickness of "classic" modules. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have received perhaps too much criticism for their protruding camera, so it's no wonder that Apple is trying to find a solution that would allow it to integrate a thinner camera module without compromising photo quality.
SLR equivalent quality
LinXu modules take photos in normal lighting conditions with a quality equal to the quality of photos from an SLR. This is made possible by their ability to capture more detail than a single large sensor. As evidence, they took several photos at LinX with a camera with two 4MPx sensors with 2 µm pixels with backside illumination (BSI). It was compared to the iPhone 5s, which has one 8MP sensor with 1,5 µm pixels, as well as the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S4.
Details and noise
LinX camera footage is brighter and sharper than the same iPhone footage. You can see it especially when you cut out the photo from the previous paragraph.
Photography in the interior
This image shows how the LinX stands out among mobile phones. At first glance, it is obvious that LinX can capture richer colors with far more detail and low noise. It's a shame that the comparison took place earlier and it would certainly be interesting to see how the iPhone 6 Plus would fare with optical stabilization.
Shooting in low light conditions
LinX's camera architecture and algorithms use multiple channels to increase the sensitivity of the sensor, which allows exposure to be done in a relatively short time. The shorter the time, the sharper the moving objects, but the darker the photo.
Less crosstalk, more light, lower price
In addition, LinX uses the so-called clear pixels, which are clear pixels added to the standard pixels capturing red, green, and blue light. The result of this innovation is that, even with very small pixel sizes, more photons reach the sensor overall and there is less crosstalk between individual pixels, as is the case with modules from other manufacturers.
According to the documentation, the module with two 5Mpx sensors and 1,12µm BSI pixels is cheaper than the one we can find in the iPhone 5s. It will certainly be interesting to see how the development of these cameras will proceed under the baton of Apple, where other talented people can join the project.
3D mapping
Thanks to multiple sensors in a single module, the captured data can be processed in a way that cannot be done with classic cameras. Each sensor is slightly offset from the others, which makes it possible to determine the depth of the entire scene. After all, human vision works on the same principle, when the brain puts together two independent signals from our eyes.
This ability hides another potential for what activities we could use mobile photography for. As the first option, most of you probably think of additional adjustments such as artificially changing the depth of field. In practice, this would mean that you take the photo and only then select the point where you want to focus. A blur is then added to the rest of the scene. Or if you take pictures of the same object from multiple angles, 3D mapping can determine its size and distance from other objects.
Sensor array
LinX refers to its multi-sensor module as an array. Before the company was bought by Apple, it offered three fields:
- 1×2 – one sensor for light intensity, the other for color capture.
- 2×2 – this is essentially two previous fields combined into one.
- 1 + 1×2 – two smaller sensors perform 3D mapping, saving the main sensor time for focusing.
Apple & LinX
Of course, nobody knows today when the acquisition will affect the apple products themselves. Will it be the iPhone 6s? Will it be the "iPhone 7"? He only knows that in Cupertino. If we look at the data from Flickr, iPhones are among the most popular photography devices ever. In order for this to be the case in the future, they must not rest on their laurels and innovate. The purchase of LinX only confirms that we can look forward to better cameras in the next generation of products.
Like nice, but they could add Apt-X rather than these idiots :)
It is the most widely used because people always have it with them, it was born from heavy DSLRs. Do they have to innovate? They don't have to.
I honestly expected more. And in the case of comparison with two year old models (iPhone 5S and Galaxy S4) much much more.
We'll see what awaits us, in any case, the iPhone is without a doubt my absolute best smartphone, which no Android can even come close to... ;-)