Based on a recent publication of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Samsung has been granted a patent for a revolutionary S Pen design that will add powerful photographic capabilities to it like optical zooming based on the use of optical lenses that are far too thick to find their way inside the phone’s body. Exploring the implementation potential of additional roles for the stylus is not something unprecedented, but making it double as a camera is a pioneering idea. The particular patent was filed back in February 2017, and it has just been granted.
As seen in the patent illustration, the S Pen will receive the light through a series of optical lenses and onto the image sensor located at the end of the array. A controller will allow the communication with the phone, so the captured images can be transferred there. A control button is also present, helping in the picture catching, and possibly in the zoom mode setting as well. Besides the lens arrangement in the illustration, Samsung has filed alternative setups in the same patent application, as different photographic performance may be achieved through various iterations of the S Pen.
Based on the illustration, the camera stylus is destined for the Galaxy Note, but seeing it in more models after it has been first introduced is not out of the question. The convenience of having a quick-to-point camera of optical zooming capabilities and superior image quality on your hands will surely be a game-changer in the smartphone industry, as most users consider photography to be one of the most prominent aspects of their gadgets’ functionality and usability. In addition to having a more powerful camera, an implementation like this one could strip the digital zoom cameras from phones entirely, allowing designers and manufacturers to offer even thinner and better performing phones.
For now, all of these assumptions have to wait, but considering the time of the patent application and the rate at which we see amazing technology getting rolled out the silicon lines, we may not have to wait for much longer.
Would you buy the first Galaxy Note that comes with an optical zoom camera S Pen? Let us know in the comments beneath, and feel free to like and subscribe to our socials on Facebook and Twitter, where our online community thrives.