Apple is reportedly looking for ways to combine various images shot from different sensors into one, to create a 360-degree view image. The company has filed several patents for such a feature which were discovered by the tech blog Apple Insider.
The patent details the ability to stitch together images from different iPhones into one. The feature sounds very interesting but it’s difficult to say whether it will ever make it to the market because parents do not always turn into reality.
Group of iPhone users can create 360-degree images
“A photographer, videographer, or other person may desire to capture images using several image-capture devices,” says Apple, “and combine the images captured by each of the individual devices into one continuous image.”
If the feature is ever released, based on the patent, users will be able to use different devices to click images and be able to create one continuous image from all the images. The feature could very likely be introduced on the iPhone first but could later be expanded to the iPad. The Mac? Very unlikely.
“The combined, continuous image may have a greater field-of-view and include more image data than the individual images captured by the image-capture devices,” continues the patent application.
The patent also describes the ability to mount iPhones on some sort of stand possibly to reduce any overlap and to not capture different views which cannot be stitched together. The feature could be used by a group of people having iPhones to capture cool 360-degree view photos.
“One factor that contributes to the overall quality of an image captured by an image-capture device is the resolution (e.g., number of pixels) of the image,” says Apple, “which may be limited by the size and configuration of the image sensor.”
The next flagship iPhone is to release sometime in the fall of 2021.