How About a Gigapixel Digital Camera?

vcullen writes "Ever wondered where digital cameras will end up? What about a 1 Gigapixel digital camera? It would certainly beat the latest array of new digital cameras - the biggest of which only has an 8.2MP sensor! The 1 Gig Digital Camera might not quite fit in your pocket but the thought of it does make one's mind spin a little. The European Space Agency is building this massive camera (actually it's made from 170 cameras) for its Gaia space telescope, due for launch in 2010. Why? They want to map the entire universe 'down to a resolution one million times fainter than the human eye can see.'"

Comments

Pixels don't matter

[Anonymous Coward]

All that matters is the lens. By Allah, an 8.2MP camera with a quality nikon lens is better than a 1GP pixel camera with a plastic lens. When will people learn?

Re:Pixels don't matter

[Barsema]

Hm, but an 8.2MP camera with quality nikon lens is not better than a 1GP pixel camera with a quality nikon lens. zo I guess they do matter somewhat?

How about fewer, but faster

[Rufus88]

Rather than try to fit a billion pixels in a handheld camera, why not try to make sensors that operate much faster. If you could capture a hundred images at current resolutions in the same amount of time as it takes to capture a single image, you could rely on vibration-induced motion of the camera, and use motion estimation techniques to calibrate the images. Then you could use a splatting technique to sum up the images on a higher resolution grid to create an effective 100-fold resolution increase.

Of course, you wouldn't want to use a tripod with this, or perhaps you'd need a special tripod which intentionally generates random vibrational motion. Sorry if this is stupid, I'm just brainstorming here.

Simply amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

Lately, the ESA has really shown itself to have the innovation and can-do attitude that brings successes like these. What makes it all the more suprising is that they rely on a budget that is a fraction what NASA spends. Their cooporation and teamwork should be an inspiration - and a lesson - to the NASA, and US Gov't, buraucracy, who seem to thik technological and scientific advancement come by magic if you throw your money at a private company. When will they understand that blind faith in the capitalist system can only lead to their slow decline?

Put another way, it's not how much money you spend, it's how you spend it.

Re:Nitpicking

[Too Much Noise]

First, that's not new by any definition.

Second, these Kodak cameras have larger sensors (although in this particular case larger != better quality).

Finally, there are such things as digital backs for larger format cameras. Check this one out.

Canon is nice, but it's not an end-all-be-all in photography.

Right...

[El]

So what's to stop them from pointing this fancy new camera back at the Earth? Perhaps it is not extra-solar objects that they are interested in...