Researchers at the University of Princeton and the University of Washington have now impressively demonstrated that a high-resolution camera does not necessarily have to be large. They shrunk a camera to the size of a grain of salt. With the help of a further developed metasurface technology, the camera can take color photos of very good quality.
Tiny camera, big picture
What the research team of the University of Princeton because it succeeded is almost unbelievable. They shrunk a camera to the size of a grain of salt. It is so tiny that it can hardly be seen on a finger with the naked eye.
The researchers are relying on a further development of the so-called Metasurface-Technologie. This made ultra-compact cameras possible before, but the image quality that can be achieved with them has so far been very limited. Images were mostly blurry, distorted, and low resolution.
The newly developed Neural Nano-Optic-System should take photos, the quality of which is comparable to cameras that are 500,000 times larger. The camera has 1.6 million microscopic, cylindrical elements that respond to light. They work like optical antennas and thus catch the light.
In combination with the machine learning algorithms used, the camera is able to interpret how light hits these antennas and combine the data to create high-resolution images.
The picture quality is extremely impressive. The comparison photo of the National Science Foundation show the image quality of the new model (“Neural Nano-Optics”) alongside earlier cameras that are of a similar size. On the far right, the researchers show a comparison with a traditional camera with a combination of six lenses that is 550,000 times larger than the newly developed meta-optics.
A whole new breed of smartphone camera
The tiny camera can process photos with a resolution of 720 x 720 pixels in just 58 milliseconds. It is intended to be used primarily in medical and industrial areas of application, but according to the researchers, it could also be used in smartphones.
Instead of a camera setup with three or four lenses, it would be conceivable, at least in theory, to equip the entire back of a smartphone housing with such small cameras.
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