Future Cameras Could Mimic Human Eye

An image sensor consisting of a flat circuit board has served digital camera photographers well for many years. However, the ultimate image sensor - the human eye - is far from flat.

Does that mean there's a better way to create digital photographs, one that more closely mimics the human eye? Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are developing technologies for future cameras that could help answer that question in a few years.

Better Images

The researchers are making use of a curved image sensor to create better images. The curved image sensor records images while working more like the inside of the human eye, which is naturally curved.

Unlike a flat image sensor, a curved sensor is able to provide sharp imaging of all aspects of photo. The curved sensor especially outperforms the flat sensor at the edges of the photo when using simple imaging optics.

Curved Image Sensor

Northwestern professors Yonggang Huang and Joseph Cummings teamed with Professor John Rogers of the University of Illinois to create the curved image sensor, which consists of silicon detectors and electronics that conform to the curved surface. When the digital camera takes a photo using this technology, the curved area captures the image by becoming the focal point for the camera lens, much like the back of the human eye is the focal point for light entering the eye.

With a flat image sensor, the camera lens must reflect an image several different times to strike the image sensor in the proper configuration to create the image. A curved sensor would not require numerous reflections, theoretically leading to greatly improved image quality.

Solving Problems

In releasing their findings, the researchers say various designers have worked on creating a curved image sensor for more than 20 years. It has been a difficult process because silicon breaks under the pressure required to create curvature. The semiconductor materials used in an image sensor are brittle, too.

They worked around this problem by stretching a curved, thin, elastic polymer (elastomeric) membrane until it became flat; think of it like stretching a skin over a drum. The researchers then placed tiny digital photography electronics  sensors and associated circuitry  over the flat membrane.

With everything in place, they returned the elastic polymer to its curved shape. The brittle electronics are so small  measuring about 100 by 100 micrometers  that they aren't affected when the membrane is curved again. One micrometer is equal to a millionth of a meter, or about .00004 inches. To further take the stress off the electronics, the researchers connect the electronics with arc-shaped metal wires rather than brittle traces, as shown in the photo above.

During the early testing phase, the researchers found that more than 99% of the electronics continued to operate after the membrane's curvature was returned, providing promising early results.

The Future

The research into the capabilities of the curved electronics isn't limited to digital cameras and image sensors. Huang and Rogers are looking at using the curved electronics in items such as solar panels, or medical devices that must be attached to the curves of the human body.

Obviously, a curved image sensor is at least a few years away from finding its way into a digital camera that you can purchase. The researchers are still in the very early phases of developing the technology, although they say they have proven that a curved image sensor will work.

Next, the researchers must determine a way to add pixels to the curved sensor digital camera and continue to create electronics that will survive under the stress of a curved surface. They have to keep the technology cost effective, too; the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy have helped fund the research thus far.

Despite the remaining challenges, there's no doubt that it's worth keeping an eye on this technology.

Nikon Shows Off Rather Dull Future Camera Concepts

Nikon is showing off a few of its own concept cameras on the I Am Nikon blog. These prototypes were on display at La Cit des Sciences in Paris, and are now conveyed across the world in photographic form for your titillation.

First up is the Multi-Ball (above), a camera with many, many spherical eyes arranged on yet another, larger sphere. Its purpose is to capture the atmosphere of a scene, but coming in the wake of the amazing Lyto plenoptic camera, which lets you focus pictures after you have shot them, it looks rather old already.

The Big Screen Camera is just that: a big LCD screen with a pair of handles and a small camera embedded somewhere inside. Anyone who has used a tablet to take a photograph will know that this is simultaneously great (big screen!) and awkward (you look like a dork). Still, at least with Nikon behind it, youll be sure to get a good-quality capture, unlike the crap you get from the iPad which looks like you shot it through a piece of frosted, dimpled glass.

Third is this new take on the SLR. The lens is the biggest part, and the screen and handle hang off it like appendages. This, too, has been foreshadowed in the current market. Take a look at Sonys NEX cameras to see tiny bodies clipped onto big lenses.

Finally there is the mystery i-Ball. Nikon is saying nothing. The paranoid Englishman in me says that this is some kind of surveillance device. But in reality, Nikon probably has no idea what it does either, and just included it because it looks cool.

None of these concepts seems to be anything particularly thought-provoking. Im sure yall can do a lot better. Im going to lead off with a lens-changing camera with a 3G radio and a Android-running processor. I could then have Hipstamatic-style fun with a proper, big-sensor camera. What about you? Suggestions, as ever, in the comments.

A Digital Camera from the Future

Wouldn't it be interesting if somebody shipped a gadget from the future -- say, a typical PC or a cell phone from the year 2015?
The PC might have a 72-inch multi-touch display, 64 terabytes of holographic memory, infinite solid-state storage and a 45Gbps connection to the Internet. The cell phone could be the size and shape of a credit card, with a fold-out 14-inch hi-def screen and might also be used as a Taser.

Products like these would blow everyone's minds. Interestingly, a digital camera from the future has been announced, and nobody has yet acknowledged it as such. The camera is the $1,000 Casio EX-F1, and it ships in March.

When Casio demonstrated the camera at CES, the gadget press "oooh'ed" and "aaah'ed" about the camera's high-speed image capture, but nobody seemed to realize that the EX-F1 isn't just some prosumer camera with a parlor trick, but technology that represents the future of all cameras.

What's So Futuristic About the EX-F1?

If you're taking a picture of, say, someone jumping into a swimming pool, the EX-F1 will take 30 pictures in the half-second after you press the button. But magically, it will also take 30 pictures the half-second BEFORE you pressed the button. A scroll wheel on the back lets you quickly scroll through these 60 pictures to find the best one. Once you've found it, you press a button, and that shot is saved to the camera's storage -- the rest are left to die in the cache.

You can spread this record-shattering burst mode beyond one second all the way up to a minute. But the longer the capture period, the less frequent the snaps. So if you set the camera to take pictures for constantly 12 seconds, it will do so at 5 pictures per second.

This feature will almost guarantee that you'll capture the action at exactly the right moment, enabling amateurs to capture pictures like these.

You can shoot fast in darkness, too. The flash can keep up with 7 images per second until you reach 20 pictures. At rates of between 10 to 60 frames per second, you can opt for a secondary and internal high-speed LED flash.