Over the past few years, we have seen significant developments in smartphone cameras. As companies started integrating more advanced lenses into smartphones, offering 100x zoom capability or Liquid Lens support, to improve imaging capabilities, a lot of progress has been made over the past few years. And today’s smartphones, like the Apple iPhones, rely on advanced camera systems to authenticate your face and unlock the device. However, these camera technologies come with their own flaws such as the notch on iPhones and unwanted camera bumps on modern smartphones. So, to eliminate such design flaws, a company has developed new lens technology that relies on polarized light information, unlike traditional lenses.
A Harvard-based company named Metalenz recently unveiled its latest PolarEyes lens technology that promises to offer various advanced camera features such as biometric authentication and improved low-light imaging using compact and inexpensive camera lenses. The new Metalenz PolarEyes technology uses polarized light information, which traditional camera lenses ignore, to function.
The company states that its new lens technology combines physics and optics, software and hardware to support next-gen smartphone cameras with improved privacy features. While most modern smartphones have facial recognition technology, they can be easily fooled using spoofing methods like a silicone mask or a printed picture.
Other than this, as the PolarEyes technology relies on a single, compact lens that can be hidden underneath a smartphone screen, it could potentially help Apple to finally get rid of the notch from their iPhones without compromising on the security of the system. Furthermore, the technology can also recognize faces when they are half-exposed, say when a user is wearing a mask. So, it could also eliminate the need for any workaround or an Apple Watch to unlock an iPhone while wearing a face mask.
The company says that metalenses combined with the latest PolarEyes technology can aid privacy features in future smartphones and even bring them to laptops and other electronic gadgets. It can also support future automotive applications and healthcare products, as per Metalenz.
