The world's first mass-producible under-screen camera solution is released! Xiaomi, Huawei, OV, who will be the first to try it?

Author | Xiao Man

The era of “true full screen” may be coming!

Looking at the current mobile phone screens, there are notch screens, hole-punch screens, and water-drop screens, and the screens are not comprehensive.

But good news, good news! The world's first mass-producible under-screen camera solution is here.

The solution was launched by a company called Visionox.

It seems that in addition to the lifting camera design, in order to achieve a 100% full screen, the under-screen camera has finally seen the light of day.

There are three main difficulties with under-screen cameras: one is the transparency of the camera area; two is the degree of interference of the mobile phone screen on the camera; and three is the contradiction between transparency and display.

In addition, for the mobile phone industry, even if the technology that enables under-screen photography is developed, mass production is one of the difficult problems that need to be solved before it can be put into use.

According to Visionox, its InV see™ under-screen camera solution has successfully solved the difficulties of viewing under-screen cameras.

Note: Image source : Visionox

First, look at transparency.

To solve this difficulty, Visionox started with the screen material, adopted new organic and inorganic film materials with higher transparency, and performed transmittance-enhancing treatment on the film structure.

Not only that, Visionox has also optimized the metal layer structure of the screen, using transparent conductive layers in the secondary screen area to the maximum extent instead of non-transparent metal materials to improve the transparency of the secondary screen area.

In addition, this operation also performs well in suppressing diffraction, mainly in the front camera; this is also related to the difficulty of the second aspect.

Regarding the interference of the screen on the camera, in order to optimize the selfie effect, Visionox adopts the industry's first driving circuit and pixel structure design, which avoids the interference of the pixel driving circuit on the camera and suppresses the influence of the transparent area display wiring and pixels on the front camera, thereby improving the front camera effect.

However, to achieve good selfie results, it is not enough to just work on the screen, the camera also needs to be improved.

Therefore, Visionox has teamed up with terminal manufacturers to optimize the algorithm of the front camera, further eliminate diffraction and glare, and suppress the fogging effect, thereby improving the brightness and clarity of picture shooting.

After achieving transparency, the third difficulty of under-screen camera is how to solve the screen display problem. As the saying goes, "it needs to be transparent and have an unobstructed display."

In this regard, the solution proposed by Visionox is to optimize the special pixel arrangement method, weaken the dividing line between the main and sub-screen areas caused by differences in transparency, resolution, etc., allow the edges to transition naturally, and then synchronize the main and sub-screen displays through an innovative driving method.

In addition, Visionox also uses new OLED devices to eliminate the differences between the transparent secondary screen and the main screen, including brightness, color gamut, viewing angle, etc., making the display of the entire screen more consistent.

As for mass production, the wording used by Visionox when releasing the solution has proved that mass production is not a problem; after all, according to Visionox, the "prefix" of its under-screen camera solution is global, first, and mass-producible.

Technical difficulties have been overcome and mass production is no longer a problem. Does this mean that the era of "true full-screen" smartphones has finally arrived?

Wait a minute!

To truly realize a “true full screen”, application is the key.

Before Visionox, some manufacturers had already proposed technical solutions for under-screen cameras.

In June 2019, OPPO Vice President Shen Yiren revealed on a social platform that OPPO has realized an under-screen camera and released a dynamic picture of a real machine demonstration.

Note: The picture shows the OPPO under-screen camera demonstration animation

Judging from the animated picture, when switching from the normal screen display mode to the selfie mode, a light trace animation prompt will appear on the top of the screen, and there will be a rotating animation in the center, and the circle is where the under-screen camera is located.

However, the animated demonstration also shows that the switching between different modes is not smooth enough and requires a certain amount of time to buffer.

After the leaked video, OPPO's under-screen camera solution has not yet entered mass production or application.

In addition to OPPO, vivo is also an early adopter of under-screen camera applications.

In February 2020, vivo released the new generation APEX concept phone, which is equipped with a 120° full-view integrated screen and also uses an under-screen camera, realizing an integrated design without openings in the entire machine.

Judging from the actual shooting demonstration of the under-screen front camera given by vivo at the time, the clarity of the photos needs to be improved under good ambient light conditions, not to mention under poor lighting conditions.

Although Visionox has announced that it has achieved mass-producible under-screen camera solutions, whether its screen can withstand real-world applications remains to be tested.

Regarding the attitude towards the under-screen camera solution, Shen Yiren’s words may serve as a reference for reflection.

He said:

At this stage, don’t set your expectations too high for under-screen cameras. Whether it is the "under-screen" visual effect of the screen or the front-facing selfie effect, treat it as an interesting attempt. The evolution of new technologies is bound to be tortuous, and only gradual improvements can ultimately achieve the desired effect.

In short, it means "lower your expectations, keep trying, and improve step by step."

After Visionox announced that it has achieved a mass-producible under-screen camera solution, netizens couldn't sit still and speculated which mobile phone manufacturer would be the first to use this screen.

Some netizens have even come up with promotional slogans for various mobile phone manufacturers, such as Huawei's "Super-sensing under-screen imaging", Xiaomi's "Born for under-screen photography", and OPPO's "Under-screen imaging photosensitivity awakening".

It is true that "manufacturers are not in a hurry, but netizens are."

Judging from the feedback from netizens, Xiaomi is currently in the trend. After all, Xiaomi's previous MIX Alpha concept phone used a screen produced by "Visionox", which has the support of a cooperative foundation.

In addition, based on their previous exploration of under-screen cameras, OPPO and vivo are also favored by netizens and may become the "first to try".

Coincidentally, shortly after Visionox announced the solution, it was revealed that the OnePlus 9 Pro will adopt an under-screen camera. As to whether it will use Visionox's mass-produced screen, it is still unknown.

Last question, which manufacturer do you think will be the first to adopt this under-screen camera solution?

References:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jky9I1ihAkg

• https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/IgGCA_hI_D1sDjU71KAfuQ

• https://www.ithome.com/0/427/408.htm