ams OSRAM Unveils Next-Generation Smartphone Sensing Technology
ams OSRAM has unveiled an integrated imaging-to-display sensing solution for smartphones at the 2026 China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE 2026), bringing together advanced optical sensing technologies designed to improve accuracy, stability and precision across mobile imaging and display applications.
Developed in collaboration with smartphone manufacturer vivo, the solution connects sensing technologies across the imaging-to-display pipeline, covering ambient light detection, image capture and spatial sensing. By integrating these capabilities into a unified sensing chain, ams OSRAM aims to help smartphones deliver more natural, consistent and true-to-life visual experiences across a wide range of lighting and environmental conditions.
The ams solution combines an ams OSRAM spectral color sensor, a multi-channel spectral sensor designed for ambient light spectrum and flicker detection, and the company’s TMF8829 direct time-of-flight (dToF) depth sensor.
According to ams OSRAM, the integration represents the first time front-facing under-display optical sensing and rear-facing spatial sensing have been brought together in this type of smartphone sensing architecture. The approach creates new possibilities for optical sensing and enables smartphones to move beyond conventional image capture toward a greater understanding of light, color and space.
Connecting Ambient Light, Imaging and Spatial Sensing
The ams smartphone visual experience depends on more than the display panel or camera itself. Ambient lighting, color temperature, flicker, image exposure and spatial information all influence how users perceive content and how cameras capture real-world scenes.
ams OSRAM’s new solution is designed to address these factors as part of a connected sensing pipeline.
At the front of the device, its behind-OLED spectral color sensor is designed to perform spectral and color sensing through OLED displays. The sensor supports five-channel spectral or RGB color sensing and is engineered to maintain high sensitivity and signal-to-noise performance even when operating behind ultra-low-transmittance OLED displays.
This enables accurate ambient-light measurements, including under low-light conditions. The information can then be used to dynamically adjust parameters such as display brightness, color temperature and color management.
The sensor also incorporates infrared suppression and proximity detection, along with environmental adaptability designed to support consistent performance across changing conditions.
For smartphones with increasingly narrow bezels and under-display sensing requirements, these capabilities can help maintain display quality without compromising the device’s design.
Improving Imaging Under Complex Lighting
The second component is a newly launched multi-channel spectral sensor designed to capture detailed information about the surrounding light environment.
The eight-channel version is intended for smartphone rear-camera applications and combines high-precision color and spectral sensing with light-source identification and flicker detection.
The sensor is designed to emulate aspects of human color perception and provide accurate ambient-light information that can support automatic white balance, automatic exposure and anti-flicker processing.
This becomes particularly important when smartphones are used under mixed, rapidly changing or artificial lighting.
The sensor’s high sensitivity, independent channel gain and continuous HDR flicker measurement capabilities allow it to identify light sources and detect flicker across challenging environments, including low-light and high-dynamic-range scenes.
By giving the camera system more detailed information about the surrounding light, the technology can help improve color consistency and image stability in both photographs and video.
The sensor also incorporates optical calibration data to compensate for variations between individual devices. This can simplify calibration during smartphone production and potentially improve consistency across large-scale manufacturing.
Bringing Spatial Awareness to Smartphones
The third component is the TMF8829, ams OSRAM’s latest-generation 48×32 multi-zone dToF depth sensor.
The sensor is being used in a smartphone for the first time and provides real-time, multi-zone depth information through an 80-degree diagonal field of view and multiple zone configurations.
This allows smartphones to more accurately determine the distance and spatial position of objects and subjects.
The technology can support applications including autofocus, moving-subject tracking, portrait depth-of-field segmentation, 3D reconstruction, augmented-reality ranging and spatial scanning.
Its factory calibration and compact form factor are designed to simplify integration while improving depth-related capabilities.
The result is a shift from smartphones simply capturing what a camera sees toward systems that can also understand aspects of the physical space in front of them.
A Consistent Visual Experience Across Environments
Together, the three technologies are designed to create a more consistent visual experience regardless of lighting conditions.
A user might move from bright outdoor sunlight to an indoor environment with multiple artificial light sources and later use the device in low-light conditions. Each environment presents different challenges for displays and cameras.
The integrated sensing approach is designed to allow the smartphone to respond dynamically to those changes.
For the display, ambient spectral information can help optimize brightness and color characteristics. For imaging, detailed information about light sources and flicker can support more accurate color reproduction and stable image capture. Depth sensing adds another layer of environmental understanding for autofocus, computational photography and spatial applications.
The broader objective is to create a seamless chain connecting environmental sensing, image capture, spatial understanding and display rendering.
Collaboration With vivo
At CIOE 2026, ams OSRAM and vivo demonstrated the technology through smartphone prototypes featuring a high-precision VUS multispectral sensor and other components of the integrated imaging-to-display solution.
The demonstrations focused on three areas: display brightness optimization, image enhancement under complex lighting and background conditions, and real-time depth sensing.
Through demonstrations and side-by-side comparisons, visitors could observe how the technologies respond to different lighting conditions, improve imaging stability in challenging and flicker-prone environments, and enhance autofocus and spatial perception through depth information.
The demonstrations illustrated the companies’ concept of a smartphone experience in which the information captured by optical sensors contributes directly to what users see on the display and how the device responds to its environment.
vivo brings extensive experience in smartphone imaging and display technologies, as well as expertise in understanding consumer requirements and integrating component-level technologies into complete device experiences.
During development, ams OSRAM and vivo worked to establish an end-to-end technology chain covering ambient-light sensing, image capture, spatial understanding and display rendering.
The collaboration demonstrates how specialized optical components can be integrated into a broader system to create capabilities that are visible to consumers rather than remaining isolated at the component level.
Optical Sensing as a Foundation for Future Smartphones
The evolution of smartphones toward more advanced imaging, display, artificial intelligence and spatial-computing capabilities is increasing the importance of optical sensing.
Modern smartphones need to understand more than basic brightness levels. They increasingly need information about ambient spectrum, color temperature, illuminance, flicker, depth and the spatial relationships between objects.
This broader sensing capability can provide the foundation for systems that respond more intelligently to their surroundings.
As these technologies mature, optical sensing could play a growing role in enabling next-generation display and imaging experiences while supporting emerging AI and spatial applications.
ams OSRAM says it will continue investing in optics, sensing and system integration to advance smartphone display and imaging technologies and support their adoption in real-world applications.
The company also plans to expand collaboration with smartphone manufacturers and ecosystem partners worldwide to develop new applications and accelerate innovation across the mobile technology industry.
With smartphones increasingly becoming sensing-driven computing platforms, the integration of light, color, imaging and spatial information represents an important step toward devices that do more than display and capture the world—they increasingly understand it.
Source Link: https://ams-osram.com/