The world of technology is full of instances where a considerably small company manages to achieve a break-through in some key field, and then a larger company buys it to acquire that technology. Often the acquisition is to get that technology, and bring it to existing products and sometimes to just use the tech for some other purpose. Given the history, instances like this are too frequent and if reports are to be believed then Samsung is currently trying to do the same with a small company from Israel. According to reports, Samsung is looking to acquire Corephotonics, a company that is behind the periscope-like lossless zoom technology that Oppo showcased to the world.
According to Android Authority, the South Korean giant may take the technology and then bring it to its flagship smartphone lineups including the Samsung Galaxy S series and the Samsung Galaxy Note lineup. The information was initially reported by Globe, a publication from Israel. As reported, Samsung is currently in “advanced talks” for the acquisition. According to the report, Corephotonics has worked with Chinese smartphone maker Oppo to work on the periscope-like lossless zoom technology that was showcased back in MWC 2017 where the setup could achieve 5X zoom without any loss in quality with the help of a prism.
Watch: Honor View20 First Look
As reported previously, Oppo has teased a 10x lossless zoom setup this year so it is likely that the company teamed up with Corephotonics for the upcoming setup. Moving back to Samsung, it looks like the company has its eyes fixed on the future of its flagship devices. This is likely a push to continuously improve its future smartphone devices with the help of better and improved technology.
DJ Koh, the president for the company stated something along the similar lines during the Galaxy Note 9 event last year adding that it is difficult for the company to innovate or continuously improve features in a smartphone. If the acquisition goes ahead, then Samsung may have access to the about 150 filed patents from Corephotonics to bring the feature in future Galaxy S11 or Galaxy Note 11 with the help of a triple or a quad camera setup.
The lossless zoom tech is based on a triple-camera setup. According to the report, a Corephotonics whitepaper claims that software wizardry could enable “up to a total of 25x zoom factor”. The only other competitor to this technology is Huawei Mate 20 Pro that uses a hybrid zoom to reach a maximum of 5x zoom. Last but not least, Corephotonics is also currently in the middle of a legal battle with Apple where it claims that Apple infringed on its patented technology for the dual camera setup in iPhones.
