Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities suggested that the front camera of the iPhone 8 may
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Shares in Himax Technologies Uppriced immediately at 56 percent on expectations that the company will become a supplier of components for the 3D scanner of the iPhone 8 device from Apple. The new scanner will be responsible for transmitting depth of field similar to the human visual system, and may also be responsible for the appearance of the expected capabilities of augmented reality in the iPhone 8 device.
In photography, a 3D scanner will be used tocreating photos with the effect of depth of field, which will allow you to abandon the use of a dual camera and, accordingly, in portrait mode, the iPhone 8 device can only use one camera on the rear panel. Another advantage of using a 3D scanner in a smartphone’s cameras will be the ability to select a focus point after a photo has been taken.
At the time of this writing, Himax was not on Apple's vendor list.
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Apple may have preferredtake advantage of Himax’s 3D camera development instead of Intel’s RealSense products because the solution from the first company is based on the use of microlenses (small positive lenses), which further reduces the size of the 3D scanner module for installation in a smartphone.
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Microlens technology is less costly whenminimizing the size of optics at the level of microlenses using advanced technologies like semiconductor. Microlens technology supports the creation of megapixel optical structures, where initially the optical elements are arranged in a strictly defined order, then they are attached and subsequently separated from each other to create a multi-element optical assembly.
To illustrate this technology, we offerConsider the cross-sectional diagram of a prototype electronic eye cluster presented below, where the optical module is located directly above the image sensor, which is marked in gray. The substrate, made of glass, is marked in light blue, and the microlenses are marked in dark blue.
According to analyst Charlie Chan, "MorganStanley ”, existing 3D scanning technology can improve face recognition technology, gesture recognition and significantly improve the quality of 3D modeling and scanning. “We believe that 3D modeling technology has the greatest potential in terms of developing augmented / virtual reality applications (games, virtual social networks, etc.),” he says.
According to experts from MorganStanley, ”3D scanning technology will correspond to 20 percent of Himax’s budget revenue for 2018. Other manufacturers will follow Apple’s example and also take advantage of Himax’s 3D scanning technology, which will bring the latter an additional 22 percent profit in the value of its shares.