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Never one to rest on its laurels, Apple is constantly patenting new ideas on both the hardware and software sides of things. The Cupertino Company’s latest patent relates to a bit of both; the camera and the linked Camera app.
Currently the Camera app in iOS on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad will take a picture using autofocus to determine the best settings for you. You can capture the image immediately using the icon on screen or one of the volume keys, or if you want to create a specific area of focus in the image you can tap that area on the screen of your iOS device before taking a snap.
Apple plans to expand upon the latter feature by offering different gestures when tapping to focus. The feature they’ve recently patented is called ‘Multi-Touch Point Focus’ and it will use an extra, dedicated processor somewhere within the device. For this reason, we’re unlikely to see this feature added as a software update for current iOS devices – we’re talking iPhone 5 here.
With Multi-Touch Point Focus, rather than simply tapping an area on which to add focus, the user can use two fingers and the ‘pinch’ and ‘expand’ motions associated with zooming in and out in order to create an area to focus upon.
The feature will also allow the user to select an area within a frame and expand upon it for greater detail. Multiple areas of focus will also be possible, with the patent explaining that the user could tap or tap and hold on multiple regions of interest within a scene, followed by a touch to focus on those areas before the image is captured.
While a simple tap to focus may be all that’s needed to get the desired result for many when using an iPhone, we know there are some camera aficionados out there who would like more freedom when it comes to tweaking snaps on their Apple gadgets.
Does Apple’s proposed new camera feature interest you? Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
Via: Patently Apple
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