A new patent submission from Xiaomi shows off some of the manufacturer’s ideas for the future of under-display cameras. While the technology has yet to be implemented in one of the company’s smartphones, the Chinese company is working on the feature with the goal of one day introducing it to one of its devices.
The schematic above was designed by the folks at Let’s Go Digital, who created it based on the patent information. As we can see, the idea is to have a smartphone with a triple camera setup on the back, one of which, probably the main camera, is positioned right behind a part of the screen that can be transparent.
Thus, a mechanism inside the phone swivels the main camera forward when the user wants to take a selfie and works below the screen.
A solution to eliminate the notch/hole?
The main advantage of this solution is that it saves space, which is always extremely important in mobile devices. The ability to rotate one of the cameras in the rear set eliminates the need to insert another front camera module into the phone.
However, the device would require additional space to accommodate a mechanism for rotating the camera. There is also the disadvantage that the moving parts break more easily.
Like all patents, this is a feature that may or may not become a reality one day, but registering the idea also shows that Xiaomi is still working on this type of camera and continues to find new solutions for it.
The under-screen camera could prove to be the ultimate solution for companies that want to use the front area of phones more and more to provide more screen real estate. So far, however, the quality of images taken with similar technologies has been disappointing. Xiaomi, however, seems unwilling to give up, at least for now.