Tuesday, October 3 2006

A hi-res 1-pixel camera? They do it with mirrors


As we saw last week at Photokina, the race to have the most megapixels in a compact camera continues unabated. But at Rice University, in Houston, Texas, a single pixel may be plenty.

Researchers at Rice just announced a breakthrough in imaging sensor technology where high-resolution images are captured on a single imaging diode--just one pixel. Currently, the sensor's resolution is claimed to be equivalent to that of a one-megapixel camera. The Rice researchers say their prototype is less power-hungry because one pixel requires much less processing power than millions do.

As an added benefit, the single-pixel device may be able to capture a much wider range of wavelengths, including x-rays, infrared, and ultraviolet light.

Using some new mathematics and a silicon chip covered with hundreds of thousands of mirrors the size of a single bacterium, engineers at Rice University have come up with what they say is a a more efficient design. But unlike a 1MP camera that captures one million points of light for every frame, Rice's camera creates an image by capturing just one point of light, or pixel, several thousands of times in rapid succession. The new mathematics comes into play in assembling the high-resolution image--equal in quality to the one-megapixel image--from the thousands of single-pixel snapshots.

Richard Baraniuk, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and collaborator Kevin Kelley, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, have built a working prototype camera (shown) using a digital micromirror device (DMD), and a single photodiode on a single chip.

The single-pixel DMD camera is still a long way from reality as a consumer product: it only exists as a prototype in a corner of Baraniuk and Kelley's lab space, and currently can only photograph stationary objects. The researchers expect it will be used initially for scientific applications in non-visible areas of the light spectrum, but may eventually make its way into consumer cameras.


© 2006 Adorama

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