This is how a camera works behind the screen of your smartphone


Selfie

2020 has started and that means that we will hopefully see a lot of new trends in smartphones. Finally the breakthrough of the foldable smartphones perhaps? Concept phones from 2019 also show another trend: that of the camera behind the screen. This is how it works.

A camera behind the screen, that sounds like it doesn’t bother you. After all, there are all colored pixels for it. However, there are smartphone makers who have come up with a trick. Multiple tricks even. For example, there are smartphone suppliers who have placed the camera behind the screen and have it come up with a motor. Oppo Reno telephones have a shark fin that comes out at the top of the device when the front camera is needed.

Read the smartphone trends of 2020 here.

Oppo

However, the same Oppo also showed a special concept telephone in the summer of 2019. One that has no motor, but is really under the screen and does not move. The technology is in the display: the screen can turn off the pixels above the camera when you want to take a photo. This way, the selfie camera can stay completely behind the screen and still be used.

It was the first time that a smartphone supplier came up with this type of technology, although we have not yet seen it in a commercial smartphone. At the moment, all smartphones that do not have a front camera that comes up with an engine still have a notch. A notch is a black area at the top of the screen in which, among other things, the camera and a microphone or speaker are placed. Some manufacturers also choose to use a notification light, something that is missed on phones that are notchless.

By temporarily ‘disappearing’ the pixels, such a notch is no longer necessary. Moreover, this technology will in all likelihood also work quickly, so that you have the camera at your disposal exactly when you want it.

Oppo Reno camera

Camera under the screen

The Chinese Oppo competitor Xiaomi also presented a camera under the screen in 2019, whereby the pixels become transparent and the light can be transmitted. Xiaomi indicates that it also means that the camera no longer needs to be as small as possible because of the screen. A larger camera means that more light can come in and that often has a positive influence on photos. The sensors also no longer need to be as small as possible, which will ultimately make the photos better.

In the meantime, OnePlus is again using other technology to hide the camera, but whether this also works in combination with a display is still unknown. The company has shown a concept whereby the cameras on the back of the device “disappear”. They are there, but by using a special type of glass these can be displayed or not displayed.

OnePlus Concept One

During a major consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas (CES) this week more of the concept phone, called OnePlus Concept One, will be revealed. OnePlus has already given a taste and told where the technology comes from. It uses glass that can change color, something that is also called electrochromic glass. This glass is also found in certain Boeing aircraft and is intended to obscure the windows of the aircraft via electrical voltage. However, it takes a little more time there than with OnePlus, which promises that the glass can switch to dark within a fraction of a second.

The idea does not come from the planes, but from another means of transport: the car. McLaren has also contributed to this electrochromic glass for the concept device, because it is technology that it uses itself to blind car windows. Whether such glass is only useful for influencing the light in photos or has been implemented in a OnePlus for a completely different reason is still unknown. The question is of course whether something like this can also work at the front, where pixels need to display the information properly.

We will probably see a phone this year that no longer requires notch, and that will temporarily make the pixels disappear around the front camera to take a selfie or perhaps even unlock the phone via face recognition. In any case, the incidence of light plays a major role in this and we are extremely curious to test how that works.

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