Tessera's OptiML Zoom gets cameraphones 3x closer without moving parts
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 28th 2008 4:47PM
posted Apr 28th 2008 4:47PM
Oh sure, those with no shame whatsoever can snag a totally sketchy LV 2008 with an attachable zoom lens, but those of us with a shred of dignity are waiting on something better. Enter Tessera Technologies, which is today announcing that its OptiML Zoom solution is available for licensing. Said innovation brings a unique lens design and specialized algorithms to replace "traditional mechanical zoom capabilities," giving equipped cameraphones 3x optical zoom capabilities in a "compact camera module without moving parts." Hailed as the industry's first non-mechanical optical zoom solution, it promises to not degrade images the way digital zoom does, and while it's eager to see handset OEMs pick up the tech and integrate it into forthcoming mobiles, we've yet to hear of any big players jumping on board.[Via PhoneScoop]
Hmmm.. real nice lack of details you've got for us here?
Any information on how this works?
i figured it out, its really simple actually, the lense on the camera is curved, so the image would be distorted, but the algorithms interpret it to look normal and can interpret it to look like its zoomed.
I'm calling bogus, unless it uses some sort of liquid lens.
"a unique lens design and specialized algorithms"
It technically could use a magnifying lense, and the algorithm would actually be shrinking the image you see at 1x and 2x and show what it regularly captures at 3x.
Did I just crack their 'specialized algorithms'?
how hard is it to read the article before you post?
I think he wanted to be the first to post.
Very Interesting. Could be nice to have a little extra zoom.
Wow, my uncle helped design that!
And that company is awesome because all it does is buy, develop and lease patents. A very clever business indeed.
I couldn't help but notice, but did you spell your name wrong?
Lol yes, but I meant to.
I was going for the mind-f*** approach.
I'll admit, saying Jereremy outloud is definitely a mindfuck.
how hard is it to read the article before you post?
ignore this post, wrong place
Oh the irony.
actually, not a bit ironic.
I still don't understand why on my crappy samsung phone, digital zoom only works in 640x480 and not @ 1.3 megapixel. I have to change modes just to zoom. why can't it just crop my 1.3 down and show what the current res is in the corner or something!
Ask Samsung, not us.
quit whining. just take the damn picture and crop it yourself. same effect.
LOL you bought a Samsung phone. LOL.
This will be great for upskirting.
my fist will be great for perv punching
Sounds like I'm cruisin' for a knuckle sandwich! Who let tough guy w/ no sense of humor in?
Maybe he's afraid of rim jobs.
The key words, from the article:
"The technology incorporates an innovative lens design that increases the resolution in the center of the image without narrowing the field of view. The result is true optical magnification without loss of detail."
So, it's a sort of progressive lens.
However, seems like that would distort your image in the center when you want to capture a full frame. So that's where the software processing is needed. Seems like that would decrease quality, but cell phone sensors are so bad anyway that it is probably not noticeable.
Does it also take pictures of walruses?
Puffins only. Walruses will be introduced in version 2.0.
Not now, arctic puffin!