[Excerpt]

A new patent filed by Samsung for a shallow depth of field camera would utilize two separate lenses to give the depth of field effect obtained from a more expensive DSLR camera. Essentially, the patent application can be implemented on regular digital point and shoot equipment or those found on smartphones, such as Samsung’s Galaxy series Android phones.

…

In order to achieve the shallow depth of field effect that’s been a popular feature of DSLR, Samsung will make use of one camera lens to capture the full resolution image and a secondary lens to evaluate the distances between various other objects.

Information from both lenses would be combined, and software would be used to extrapolate what gets blurred and what will remain in focus.

…

The effect of Samsung’s patent application can give [3D camera sales] a boost.

Read the full article here: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/07/20/samsung-shallow-depth-of-field-camera-patent-can-give-3d-a-boost/