Samsung’s New Sensor Could Eliminate Motion Blur Forever

Samsung is developing a new camera sensor technology designed to tackle the persistent issue of motion blur in smartphone photography. This innovation could mark a significant step forward for the company’s flagship Galaxy S-series devices, which have historically faced challenges with shutter speed and lag compared to competitors. The core of this advancement lies in a novel approach to image capture that blends the benefits of different shutter technologies.

Most current smartphone cameras use a rolling shutter mechanism. This method captures an image by scanning the scene line by line, much like a scanner documents a page. While effective for still subjects, this sequential process can introduce distortion and blur when photographing anything in rapid motion, as the top and bottom of the frame are recorded at slightly different moments.

The ideal alternative is a global shutter, which captures light data from every pixel across the entire sensor simultaneously in a single instant. This eliminates the distortion inherent to rolling shutters, making it perfect for fast action. However, traditional global shutter sensors come with a major drawback: processing the immense flood of data from all pixels at once often leads to compromises in resolution, increased noise, and significant power demands. These factors have largely kept true global shutters out of mainstream smartphones.

Samsung’s proposed solution is a hybrid sensor that aims to deliver global shutter-like performance without the usual penalties. The company’s engineers are reportedly creating a sensor that “combines a pixel structure and algorithm technology based on existing rolling shutter hardware.” The key innovation is embedding a tiny analog-to-digital converter directly within clusters of pixels themselves, allowing them to read their own data independently.

To manage the physical space this requires, the design groups pixels into “2×2 bundles.” Each bundle of four 1.5µm pixels shares a single converter. This clever packaging keeps the overall sensor size practical for integration into slim mobile devices. While each small bundle operates with a rolling shutter effect, the entire array of bundles works in a coordinated, near-simultaneous fashion, approximating a global shutter’s capture.

This architectural compromise does introduce a minor trade-off. A Samsung official noted that images from this sensor can include “slight image distortion” not found on a pure global shutter. To correct for this, Samsung is pairing the new hardware with a sophisticated motion compensation algorithm. This software is designed to analyze the image data and computationally neutralize the residual distortion, effectively cleaning up the final photo.

The practical outcome for users could be substantial. If successfully implemented, this technology promises to dramatically reduce motion blur and shutter lag, addressing a long-standing critique of Samsung’s camera systems. While recent models like the Galaxy S25 Ultra have shown improvement, the gap with rivals known for computational photography, like Google’s Pixel line, could narrow significantly.

It remains to be seen when this sensor will debut in a consumer device. Reports suggest Apple is also exploring similar territory, indicating a broader industry push toward solving this photographic challenge. Initially, the sensor’s reported 12-megapixel resolution might position it for use in a secondary lens, such as an ultra-wide or telephoto camera, rather than as the main shooter. Whenever it arrives, this blend of hardware ingenuity and algorithmic correction could redefine what smartphone cameras are capable of capturing on the move.

(Source: 9to5 Google)