To everyone’s surprise, Microsoft launched a small pocketable Surface Duo that runs Android, and what’s even more surprising is Microsoft didn’t talk much about the camera of the foldable dual-screen phone.

Back in January last year, we reported how Microsoft is trying to fit a big camera into a small Surface device. And according to various reports, the Surface Duo might have a very special gigantic rear camera, giving a fillip to what we reported in January last year.

Now, a new patent has surfaced, suggesting that Microsoft is working on a thin camera system module that would fit into a thin smartphone form factor(via Windowslatest).

Microsoft’s patent talks about an imaging apparatus that comprises a structure with active and inactive positions. Microsoft also envisions an image sensor and an optical module, and the most interesting part about them is that they are movable.

Here is how Microsoft described the thin camera module:

The imaging apparatus comprises a structure with active and inactive positions. An image sensor and an optical module are movable in this structure. To enter an active position, the optical module extends along an optical axis, and the image sensor moves horizontally under the extended optical module. To enter the inactive position, the image sensor moves away, freeing space for the optical module to return to.

This thin camera module could come to the Surface Duo and while the Surface Duo that Microsoft showed a few days back doesn’t feature what you just read in the patent, the rumor of a different Surface Duo at the 2020 launch event suggests that we might see a thin camera module in Microsoft’s Android phone.