Apple is looking to beef up its camera technology with an “artificial muscle” patent that could have huge implications on future Apple mobile devices.


That’s based on United States Patent Application No. 20140168799, called the Artificial Muscle Camera Lens Actuator, which details a new lens focusing system created by Apple that uses “smart material” to alter the shape of a camera lens. This system use electro-active polymers (EAP) that change shape while in the presence of electric fields, which will aid the lens’ focusing and image capture.


This change produced by the EAP material is similar to muscle contraction movements of the human body, hence the patent’s name. According to Apple, this flexible camera tech could allow for slimmer mobile systems that can carry larger camera components. The artificial muscle actuator would likely render the use of voice coil motors (the current standard for focusing smartphone cameras) obsolete quickly—the new system would be lighter, cheaper to produce, and utilize less power consumption.


Apple’s artificial muscle “provides both lens displacement control and a variable aperture,” by using different electrodes to move the camera lens up and down. Additionally, the artificial muscle would have a top opening that would act as the aperture, and it can open and close using similar electrical signals. 


Apple claims to have tried using electro-active polymers to create an autofocus lens in the past, but the tech giant didn’t have a solution for high-volume manufacturing or mass production at the time. They seem to have found a solution, though, with a cone-like placement of these EAPs, surrounded by negative and positive electrodes respectively on the top and bottom of the system.


It remains unclear whether this technology will be a part of the highly anticipated iPhone 6 smartphone; it is a possibility, but the patent filing suggests it might be too soon. This tech has the potential to lift smartphones and tablets to a whole new level of photography. Of course, Apple files numerous patents (recently we wrote about dual-camera and Lytro-like refocusing), but it doesn’t mean all of them will become reality. 


(Via PetaPixel, Daily Mail)