The iPhone 4 undoubtedly has one of the best cameras of all smartphones available on the market. The 5 megapixel camera is capable of taking pictures that are of a much higher quality than the average, but even the 720p recording leaves nothing to be desired. Even in these conditions, Apple tries to improve the existing technology and a patented a system that should allow us to take better pictures with our iDevices. The idea of those from Apple has in the foreground the shutter of the cameras and an electro-mechanical system to control it. Apple intends to develop cameras whose shutter closes much faster and allows capturing pictures of a much better quality than those recorded now.
Specifically, the invention relates to digital cameras having an electro-mechanical shutter mechanism for accurate control of the exposure time of a microelectronic imaging sensor of the device. Such a design leads to lower power consumption due to the drive current of a bipolar electro-mechanical shutter mechanism being pulsed over as short an interval as possible. However, when shortening the close shutter pulse at the end of a given exposure, the quality of the captured image for that exposure may suffer due to noise (eg, banding or other visible artifacts). Apple's patent describes their invention that overcomes this problem.
A lower exposure results in better quality photos according to those from Apple and it is possible to see the technology implemented even in digital cameras. Of course, it's a long way from patent to implementation, but at least we know that Apple is working on improving the existing cameras in its products.
