With the development of science and the inclusion of more creativity, new changes are taking place in cameras, as in every field. Unexpectedly for its size, this new ultra-small camera, about the same size as a grain of salt, can produce images of much better quality than many ultra-compact cameras.
Utilizing technology known as the ‘metasurface’ (metasurface) covered with 1.6 million cylindrical poles, the new camera can achieve color results as good as images and photographs taken with conventional lenses that are approximately half a million times larger in size. What’s more, this tiny camera looks like it could help in everything from experts trying to figure out what’s going on deep inside the human body to miniature robots tasked with exploring the world.
The miniature camera can capture images just as well as conventional cameras
Computer scientist Ethan Tseng from Princeton University in New Jersey, who developed the camera, stated that designing and configuring the micro camera was a very difficult process. It was unclear whether it would be designed together.”
One of the most unique features of the camera is that it combines hardware and computational processing to refine the captured image. Accordingly, signal processing algorithms can produce much more effective results by using machine learning techniques to reduce blur and other distortions that normally occur in cameras of this size. The process, in which only half a millimeter wide material is used instead of ordinary curved glass or plastic lenses, is added to the structure of the metasurface, and thanks to the 1.6 million cylindrical poles, each of which is designed separately, much clearer images can be obtained. Moreover, since the glass-like silicon nitride from which the metasurface is made is a material that fits into traditional electronics manufacturing processes, it seems not difficult to apply super-small cameras to already existing procedures and equipment.
There is still a long way to go before this development, which has a small impact, is transferred from the laboratory environment to the commercial production environment; but it seems very possible to reach extremely small cameras that can take really good pictures. In addition, it is possible that miniature cameras can be used to cover the entire surface of an object with cameras or to replace traditional cameras in computers and smartphones. “We can turn individual surfaces into ultra-high resolution cameras so you no longer need three cameras on the back of your phone, the whole back of your phone becomes one giant camera,” says Felix Heide, a computer scientist at Princeton University.
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