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A promising lab trick, still years from your phone.

Vikhyaat Vivek / Digital Trends

Grainy night photos are the flaw no phone launch ever seems to fix, so a potential solution that starts with a 3D printer got my attention.

Researchers at Singapore’s University of Technology and Design, along with partners in China and Japan, have 3D-printed tiny structures called color routers. Think of them as microscopic traffic directors for light. Instead of filtering light and throwing much of it away, they guide red, green and blue light to the right spots on a sensor (via Nature Communications ).

Singapore University of Technology and Design / Nature

How does a color router beat a camera filter?

Almost every camera sensor sits behind a Bayer filter. It comprises of a grid of red, green and blue filters that lets one color through at each pixel while blocking the others. In the process, only 30% of the incoming light makes it through, while the rest goes to waste.…