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Photography From The Future: Tiny Camera Sensor May Equipment Anything And Everything With A Camera

Mar 27, 2014 by Maaz Khan 1 Comment

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Picture from Rambus

At just 200 microns in diameter, this may very well be the smallest camera in the world. Patrick Gill, a senior research scientist for a technology licensing company named Rambus, has developed a camera sensor that can capture pictures while still retaining a near-microscopic size.

The sensor itself is just a small piece of glass to the human eye. It doesn’t even have a lens, considering its size. So how does it work? The piece of glass has a spiral pattern etched onto it, which is pretty much where the light goes through. The data from that just comes out as a spherical ball of light, while the sensor captures the scene. Once both the light and scene are put together through computerized software, the final picture is formed. The sketch below illustrates the difference between how regular cameras operate and how the Rambus technology works.

rambus.com

Rambus Computational Imaging and Sensing technology

As a result of the small sensor, the picture comes in an incredibly small resolution of 128 x 128 pixels (I like calling it .1K display). But Gill doesn’t want the camera to be a replacement for other cameras. In fact, it’s more of a replacement for motion sensing. The sensor, without a lens, is even better than a regular camera at light detection; it doesn’t lose pixels to oversaturation or focusing because of that lack of lens.

The processing of the photo.

Gill’s entire motive for this device is to “add eyes to any digital device, no matter how small”. This camera is still in development, but it’s already being considered for implementation in home security, medical imagery, and devices that use gesture control. This may not just be a fancy gimmick, but an incredibly useful and versatile tool that’ll one day cover a wide range of industries.

[Via The Verge via MIT Technology Review | Picture examples from Tom’s Guide]

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Filed Under: news Tagged With: camera sensor, Computational Imaging, patrick gill, Photography From The Future, rambus, small camera

About Maaz Khan

Maaz Khan started off teaching himself photography with a disposable Kodak camera he got for his 7th birthday. His main weapons of choice are now the 5D Mark II, and an LG G2 when mobility calls.

You can find some of his work at his website, twitter Twitter @drcon and Instagam @maazcon

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