We saw this before from Sony and now there is a new patent from Nikon that seems to describe the very same thing: A curved image sensor! The advantages of such a sensor would be:
- You can design more compact lenses
- The Sony patent said there is a 1 stop advantage in making such lens designs
- No artifacts or image quality deterioration on corners
My guess is that if that patent will ever be implemented ina real products this will happen on a fixed lens camera.