Synchronizing 98 tiny cameras in a single device, electronic engineers from Duke University and the University of Arizona have developed aphotographic camera prototype that is capable of creating images with a resolution 5 times higher than that of the human eye. The device captures up to50 gigapixels of data(50,000 megapixels), a milestone for photography if we take into account that the capacity of the cameras that are sold today in the market usually oscillates between 8 and 40 megapixels per image – pixels are individual data points of an image , so that the higher the number, the higher the resolution.
“In the new device, each microcamera captures information from an area of the field of view and a processor unites it into a single image,” explains David Brady, a co-author of the research. The camera occupies 75 square centimeters, and only 3% of its content corresponds to optical elements. The rest are electronic and computer components necessary to assemble the captured information.
Researchers believe thatwithin five years the components of the device will be small enough to be marketableand bring a new generation of gigapixel cameras within the reach of the general public. “The optics is not the problem: we already have the best lenses, what we need are electronics and smaller and more efficient processors that photographers can carry,” says Brady, who has published his work in the magazineNature.
