Phone manufacturers are constantly looking to outdo each other with new technologies and features, and if their new teasers are legitimate, Xiaomi may have a real advantage over the competition with what appears to be a liquid camera lens designed for the next Mi Mix phone.
Based on a handful of images it is a clip shared on Weibo, Xiaomi is trying to replace the traditional glass elements and focus engines used in today’s smartphone camera lenses with liquid lenses that can be controlled and adjusted by applying an electric charge. This would allow the lens to change form to focus on subjects of varying distances, with Xiaomi claiming that the technology will result in longer zooms and faster autofocus than traditional smartphone camera lenses.
Although the idea of liquid lenses may seem a little strange or exaggerated, the principle is very similar to the functioning of the human eye. LiThe light enters the eye through the cornea, passes through the iris and is then focused by the crystalline layer and the aqueous fluid in the eye before finally reaching the retina.
Currently, due to their cost and complexity, liquid lenses are usually reserved for specialized industrial uses, where traditional glass lenses can be very fragile or delicate. However, this is not the first time that a smartphone company has sparked the idea of a liquid camera lens, with Huawei having patented its own liquid lens last year.
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The great advantage of a liquid lens is that it can allow smartphone companies to use the same lens for a variety of focal lengths, while being thin enough to fit on a phone. This is in stark contrast to today’s phones, which use multiple image sensors, each with their own lens itself to support provide a main, ultra-wide, macro and telephoto cameras of the device.
The current approach is a kind of brute force method enabled by the fact that adding additional image sensors to a device is relatively inexpensive, which has resulted in some companies creating devices with a large number of lenses on the back (see the Nokia 9 PureView and Light L16)
Xiaomi liquid lenses may not be fully consumer ready devices yet but demonstrating your liquid lenses in a new Mi Mix concept makes a lot of sense, because Xiaomi has historically used the Mi Mix line to test new designs or technology the company is researching. Other concepts that the company tried include the Mi Mix Alpha 2019 with your wraparound the screen and the Mi Mix portless concept earlier this year.
Although not much is known about the next Mi Mix, Xiaomi says it will reveal the device on March 29, so don’t you have to wait a lot to find out more.