Apparently, many firms are seeking to address the selfie camera notch issue in different ways. Oppo has a design that they could introduce as early as this year, that allows a single pop-up camera module to use mirrors to capture both, forward and backward images from a single unit.
A light path deflecting mirror will be used by the pop-up module, similar to a design that Xiaomi has patented but arguably more advanced. The architecture of Xioami only uses one mirror, while Oppo uses two that are arranged in the form of a triangle. In order to change the direction that the two cameras can capture, that device reflects light paths as required.
The desire to find a way to get around the cutout of the front-facing camera as well as the “camera bump” on the backside of smartphones seems to be very high, as several companies such as Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi and Oppo are all patenting various ways to try and solve the issue.
Usually, pop-up cameras are weak and prone to malfunction, so it is unclear why a common solution among companies, at least in early patent designs.
