It seems like there’s a new patent discovered every day by AppleInsider/PatentlyApple. The latest – filed in October 2012 – was published by the USPTO this morning. The “image capturing device having continuous image capture” patent essentially seeks to bring an end to “blurrycam” images.
The way it works sounds quite simple, and it will be to the end user, but the developers must have spent a good amount of time on this one. In essence, your iPhone camera will continuously capture a series of images and store them until you release the shutter. Once you let go, the clever software takes over and selects the best blur-free image.
If any of you have a Sony NEX series camera you’ll be used to this function, and when I had mine, it was awesome in lowlight conditions. Personally, I’m allergic to flash, I always look to use other methods of lighting or changing aperture or shutter speed to compensate.
My NEX-3 would take a series of shots in quick succession, and somehow come out with a blur-free image. I used it a lot to take shots of my kids who constantly move, or musicians during live shows.
What I’m saying is – if this makes it to iPhone, it will be the best thing to happen to the iPhone’s camera since HDR was introduced.