Slashdot Mirror


Gigapixel Camera Catches the Small Details

An anonymous reader sends this quote from Nature: "David Brady, an engineer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues are developing the AWARE-2 camera with funding from the United States Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (abstract). The camera's earliest use will probably be in automated military surveillance systems, but its creators hope eventually to make the technology available to researchers, media companies and consumers. ... AWARE-2 sidesteps the size issue by using 98 microcameras, each with a 14-megapixel sensor, grouped around a shared spherical lens. Together, they take in a field of view 120 degrees wide and 50 degrees tall. With all the packaging, data-processing electronics and cooling systems, the entire camera is about 0.75 by 0.75 by 0.5 metres in volume. The current version of the camera can take images of about one gigapixel; by adding more microcameras, the researchers expect eventually to reach about 50 gigapixels. Each microcamera runs autofocus and exposure algorithms independently, so that every part of the image — near or far, bright or dark — is visible in the final result. Image processing is used to stitch together the 98 sub-images into a single large one at the rate of three frames per minute."

4 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. celebrate! by Sparticus789 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've always wanted an in-flight UAV to be able to diagnose me with skin cancer.

    --
    sudo make me a sandwich
  2. Great... by jmerlin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just when I thought I had plenty of space for my HD porn.

  3. Woot! At last . . . by dogsbreath · · Score: 3, Funny

    a camera that truly matches the detail zooming capability of webcams on NCIS, CSI whatever and so on.

  4. Re:What if they group-up 98 AWARE-2 cameras? by LifesABeach · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is this Camera the reason for the hold up on the iPhone 5?