Fastest gigapixel camera prototype built

Added by Saimah Hanif
Technology Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

Engineers in the United States have built a prototype gigapixel camera the size of a bedside cabinet that can capture an image in a single snapshot with 1,000 times more detail than today's devices.


It is not the world's first gigapixel camera, but it is the smallest and fastest and opens up prospects for improving airport security, military surveillance and even online sports coverage, its developers say.

A pixel is a small light point in a digital image, concentrations of which together form a picture.

Today's cameras capture images measured in megapixels -- a million pixels -- normally between eight and 40 for an average consumer device. A thousand megapixels make a gigapixel, which is thus comprised of a billion pixels.

Most of today's gigapixel images are made by digitally merging several megapixel pictures.

"Our camera records a one gigapixel image in less than a 10th of a second."

Gigapixel imaging captures details that are invisible to the human eye and can later be examined by zooming in without losing clarity.The optical system consists of a six-centimeter ball-shaped lens surrounded by an array of 98 micro-cameras each with a 14-megapixel sensor.

"The electronic system shrinks by a factor of four in the next generation."

In use today are highly specialized gigapixel astronomical telescopes and airborne surveillance systems, which are comparatively large and have a narrow field of view, said Brady of Duke University in North Carolina. There are also some film-based gigapixel cameras.

"Our technology is most interesting as the first demonstration of high pixel count and wide field of view imaging at finite focal ranges," said Brady.

The cost of such a camera today would be similar to that of a high-resolution digital movie camera, he said -- about $100,000 to $250,000 (80,000 to 200,000 euros).

But as the electronics improve, the price should become affordable for professional and serious amateur photographers within about five years, followed soon thereafter by hand-held gigapixel cameras entering into widespread use.

Brady said the technology could be used, for example, to stream sporting events over the Internet - enabling viewers to zoom in and watch the game from whatever perspective and resolution they choose.