What’s up doc? Xiaomi patents phone with ‘bunny ears’ pop-up cameras

These cameras will be able to double up as front and back cameras thereby removing the need of a notch or punch-hole screen.

These two units, placed at an angle to each other, will not only pop up to look like little bunny ears, but will also carry a front and back camera on each unit. (Xiaomi)

Xiaomi is known to have patented a whole list of strange camera designs and the latest one is rather, well, cute. According to a report by Tiger Mobiles, Xiaomi has filed a patent for a smartphone design that comes with two pop-up cameras places like bunny ears on top of the device.

These two units, placed at an angle to each other, will not only pop up to look like little bunny ears, but will also carry a front and back camera on each unit. Theoretically, this makes it easy for the device to have two front cameras and two rear cameras and eliminates the need for a notch or a punch-hole screen.

Going by the diagram in the patent, the device otherwise looks like a normal smartphone with stereo speakers, USB-C port etc, though the flash is placed on the back of the device. Since this is a patent, it is ideally a placeholder design that shows how the cameras might work.

And just because of patent exists, that does not necessarily mean that Xiaomi is going to make a phone based on this design that they are going to ship. A patent is usually an idea and not necessarily a “product roadmap”.

Xiaomi is already used pop-up cameras on their Mi 9T series and on many Redmi smartphones so it's not entirely impossible that they implement it down the line.

A design like this also has practical implications since it is impossible to provide two front cameras without compromising on screen space, for rear cameras as well and other phone components. A design like this would also allow for wide-angle selfies while keeping the camera's overall footprint minimum.

Even if Xiaomi does not use this exact design in the future, anything close to this would mean sleeker all-screen phones.