At present, there are two lenses on the mainstream mobile phones, and three-lens mobile phones may appear next year. Chao-Tsung Huang, an associate professor of electrical engineering at NTHU, predicts that the front-end mobile phones may carry 9 lenses in the future, while the average mobile phone will have 5 lenses to provide "depth computation.” Depth can be linked to the real world, and then the height and size of the object can be calculated and even used for 3D modeling.

In recent years, multi-lens modules have appeared in mobile phones. In addition to providing better photo quality, they also provide novel applications such as AR, VR, and after-focus. The light field camera that appeared a few years ago triggered the interest of Prof. Huang, so the idea of developing an "FPGA low-power optical field wide-area depth processor" was raised.

Chao-Tsung Huang said that the module of the light field camera is not easy to make, and the resolution is too low. It turns out the technology was acquired in a few years. But if the resolution of the original main lens can be retained through the multi-lens module, other lenses can help calculate the depth.

Chao-Tsung Huang said that the system not only can be used on the camera lens of the mobile phone, but also be used in the image of the self-driving vehicles. At present, the self-driving vehicles receive light initiatively, although it can be used at night, but the distance is only about 100 meters. The system designed by them can receive light passively. It may not be used at night, but the distance can be increased to about 300 meters, which can be effectively used in high-speed routes.

Chao-Tsung Huang also said that the future 3D modeling through the system can be used not only indoors, but also in places with strong sunlight. He pointed out that because Taiwan's strength is IC design, if it is expected to increase the computing speed and reduce power consumption and costs in the future, with the current 7nm technology, this system could be fabricated on a chip which size is less than 0.1mm.

The paper will be published in 2019 Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference. Prof. Meng-Fan Chang, chairman of IEEE Taipei branch, said that this year's topic is "Silicon Enabling Mobile Intelligence", which will discuss topics such as semiconductor trends, 5G, AI, etc., and will invite speeches from TSMC Vice President Zhang, Japan's DOCOMO Tech President Seizo ONOE, and South Korea's Samsung Senior Vice President Nam Sung Kim, chief scientist and senior vice president of Tsinghua Unigroup, Yi Kang.