Apple have found a novel use case for a folding phone - better panoramas

We have heard earlier that Apple is hard at work on a folding iPhone which may be released in 2022. The company is however well known for not just developing a technology, but also offering their buyers multiple reasons why they should buy their version over everyone else’s.

A new patent suggests one of the novel ways they plan to make their folding phone special is to use the variable geometry of the handset to take better pictures.

A patent uncovered by PatentlyApple suggests having a camera on each half of the folding segments, and then having the fold change the angle at which the two cameras take pictures.

When folding inwards and the cameras are on the outside (back) of the handset, the feature would enable users to take instant panoramas (with very wide angles) without having to move their handset.

Similarly, when folded inwards and the camera was on the inside (selfie side) of the handset,  the cameras would converge on the same subject from 2 different sides, allowing Apple to take 3D photos.

Apple envisions its flexible phones to be made from flexible fabric and imagines a series of cameras along the whole length of the device taking pictures from slightly different angles, which would allow all kinds of computational photography tricks.

We do not know of course if Apple will implement any of these ideas, but given that Apple has already embraced the multiple camera concept we can easily imagine the feature as a cool ‘one more thing’ for a future flexible iPhone.