Another Approach to Addressing Phone Camera Limitations

I posted recently on Apple's patent that would enable variable apertures in phone cameras.

PetaPixel has an article today on a different approach being researched by a German lab that would also result in phone cameras having variable aperture capabilities.


The approach being researched at the University of Kaiserslautern involves the use of an electrochromic polymer.  The term "electochromatic" refers to a substance that has the ability to change colors when exposed to an electric current (or in this case, one with the ability to change transparency).

The lab is currently researching a series of stacked rings sandwiched between pieces of glass.  Different rings are triggered by altering the current to the aperture stack.


The camera would only be able to use an aperture present in the stack.  Being able to use a limited number of apertures would still be an improvement over the current fixed aperture used in camera phones.


The prototype stack is 55 micrometers or microns thick.  (1 micrometer is one thousandth of a millimeter.) A piece of paper runs about 90 micrometers thick.


The research needs to produce an opaque electrochromatic polymer before the technology would be suitable for aperture purposes.