This could be how Google solves the under-display camera problem
Right now, the ideal smartphone design would be where phone makers can stuff the front-facing camera under the display so that they won’t have to deal with the notch, camera cutouts, popup cameras, and so on. So far, only a couple of companies have managed to accomplish that, but we reckon it could stand to be improved upon.
It seems that this is something that Google is working on as well, because according to LetsGoDigital, they have come across a patent by Google that shows the company’s approach to the problem, which honestly is kind of genius.
As you can see in the diagram above, what’s happening here is that the patent suggests the use of an under-display window, but instead of the camera being placed under the window, there is a prism. This prism can flip to the left or right, with the left side featuring the actual camera, and the right an auxiliary display.
This means that when the camera is not in use, the prism will reflect what’s shown on the auxiliary display to give the phone a seamless look, but when the camera is needed, it will flip to reflect images onto the camera for it to capture. We’re not sure how exactly this will work in real-life, but it’s interesting.
The problem with under-display cameras is that the quality is usually not that good, which is why we aren’t really seeing that many companies release phones with the technology. Samsung recently showed off their own solution, but we can’t say for sure when it will debut.
Source: LetsGoDigital