Scientists Develop Tiny Camera Size of Grain of Salt
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Researchers created a tiny camera that is about the size of grain of salt yet captures full-color images at the quality of a conventional lens 500,000 times larger.
Scientists have developed a working microscopic camera that they say is the size of a grain of salt.
Developed by a team of researchers from Princeton University and the University of Washington in America, the design overcomes issues linked with previous micro-sized cameras, which have often produced low-quality images with limited fields of view, ITV reported.
While a traditional camera uses curved glass or plastic lenses to bend light rays into focus, the new optical system relies on a technology called a 'metasurface', which can be produced like a computer chip.
The surface of the new camera contains 1.6 million cylinder shaped 'posts' which use artificial intelligence and light to convert what they detect into a picture.
Hoping it will be able to positively shape health outcomes, scientists say the new design could be used to help doctors take clearer images of the human body to help diagnose and treat diseases.
The camera could also be used to make better quality camera phones.
"We could turn individual surfaces into cameras that have ultra-high resolution, so you wouldn’t need three cameras on the back of your phone anymore, but the whole back of your phone would become one giant camera," Felix Heide, who helped develop the camera, said.
"We can think of completely different ways to build devices in the future."
