Crazy Consumer Electronics World: Apple promising mega-pics, not megapixels with new camera patent

Are you ready for an upgrade over your iPhone 5S' camera picture quality? A patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office suggests that Apple is prepping a "super-resolution" imaging engine for future handsets.

The patent covers "super-resolution based on optical image stabilization," meaning your next iPhone (or more likely one several generations down the line) will rapidly take a series of images at a range of slightly offset angles.

These images will then be stitched together by an image processing engine, resulting in a "super-resolution" image.

The tech will allow Apple to significantly increase the iPhone camera's picture resolution without worrying about boosting those pesky megapixels.

How it works

As your iPhone's camera fires off a series of images, the optical image stabilization position will tilt the camera along a known optical path. During this process a positioning sensor indicating tilt angle will help ensure the accuracy of the final image.

Each shot is then transferred to the "super-resolution" imaging engine, which combines them into a single dense image by interpolating and remapping them to a high resolution grid.

The engine puts the finishing touches on the image by applying techniques like gamma correction, anti-aliasing and other methods of color processing.

With the patent first filed in 2012, it's unclear when Apple's "super-res" camera will make its way into our handsets. But the current bulkiness of physical image stabilization when compared with digital solutions suggests it probably won't be in the iPhone 6 when it launches later this year.