Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction
In the past twenty years, most of the major
technological breakthroughs in consumer
electronics have really been part of one
larger breakthrough:-
converting conventional analog
information (represented by a fluctuating
wave) into digital information
(represented by ones and zeros, or bits).
This fundamental shift in technology
totally changed how we handle visual
and audio information -- it completely
redefined what is possible.
The digital camera is one of the most
remarkable instances of this shift
Introduction
Essentially, a digital image is just a long string
of 1s and 0s that represent all the tiny colored
dots -- or pixels -- that collectively make up the
image.
This can be done by sampling the original light
that bounces off the subject, immediately
breaking that light pattern down into a series of
pixel values.
Just like a conventional camera, it has a series of
lenses that focus light to create an image of a
scene. But instead of focusing this light onto a
piece of film, it focuses it onto
a semiconductor device that records light
electronically. A computer then breaks this
electronic information down into digital data.
CCD and CMOS: Filmless
Cameras
Instead of film, a digital camera has a sensor
that converts light into electrical charges.
The image sensor employed by most digital
cameras is a charge coupled device (CCD).
Some cameras use complementary metal oxide
semiconductor (CMOS) technology instead.
Both CCD and CMOS image sensors convert
light into electrons.
A simplified way to think about these sensors is
to think of a 2-D array of thousands or millions
of tiny solar cells.
Once the sensor converts the light into
electrons, it reads the value (accumulated
charge) of each cell in the image. This is where
the differences between the two main sensor
types kick in:
CCD
CCD and CMOS: Filmless
Cameras
A CCD transports the charge across the
chip and reads it at one corner of the
array. An analog-to-digital converter
(ADC) then turns each pixel's value into a
digital value by measuring the amount of
charge at each photosite and converting
that measurement to binary form.
CMOS devices use several transistors at
each pixel to amplify and move the
charge using more traditional wires.
CMOS
Sensor
CCD
CMOS SENSOR
Pro’s And Con’s of The Two
Sensors
CCD sensors create high-quality, low-noise images. CMOS sensors are
generally more susceptible to noise.
Because each pixel on a CMOS sensor has several transistors located
next to it, the light sensitivity of a CMOS chip is lower. Many of the
photons hit the transistors instead of the photodiode.
CMOS sensors traditionally consume little power. CCDs, on the other
hand, use a process that consumes lots of power. CCDs consume as
much as 100 times more power than an equivalent CMOS sensor.
CCD sensors have been mass produced for a longer period of time, so
they are more mature. They tend to have higher quality pixels, and
more of them.
maturity produced for longer period; less mature but equal in low
higher quality images, and middle range
more pixels resolutions to CCD
Extended technically feasible; other other circuitry easily
functionality chips are used incorporated on same
chip
Digital Camera Resolution
The amount of detail that the camera can capture is
called the resolution, and it is measured in pixels. The
more pixels a camera has, the more detail it can capture
and the larger pictures can be without becoming blurry or
"grainy."
Some typical resolutions include:
256x256 - This is 65,000 total pixels.
640x480 - This resolution is ideal for e-mailing pictures or
posting pictures on a Web site.
1216x912 - This is a "megapixel" image size -- 1,109,000 total
pixels
1600x1200 - With almost 2 million total pixels. You can print a
4x5 inch.
2240x1680 - Found on 4 megapixel cameras. Prints up to 16x20
inches.
4064x2704 - A top-of-the-line digital camera with 11.1
megapixels. You can create 13.5x9 inch prints with no loss of
picture quality.
Capturing Color
Unfortunately, each photosite is colorblind. It only keeps
track of the total intensity of the light that strikes its
surface. In order to get a full color image, most sensors
use filtering to look at the light in its three primary colors
Once the camera records all three colors, it combines
them to create the full spectrum.
Capturing Color
The highest quality cameras use three separate sensors,
each with a different filter. A beam splitter directs light
to the different sensors.
On the left the full image, on the right the area in the red square magnified to
show individual pixels
PIXELS…
Each pixel in the image has a numerical value of
between 0 and 255 and is made up of three color
channels. So for example a pixel could be 37-red, 76-
green and 125-blue and it would then look like this
If it was 162-red, 27-green and 12-blue, it would look like
this
There are over 16 million possible combinations using
this scheme and each one represents a different color
Each color in this scheme can be represented by an 8-bit
number (byte), so the color of each pixel is defined by
three color bytes.
What is Autofocus?
A Casio employee
displays the
digital camera
Exilim EX-S880
during a press
conference. The
camera features
a pre-installed
YouTube Capture
software to easily
upload videos to
the Web site.
GPS Photo Taggers…
Watch out! Who knows who or what is watching you with that
seemingly unattended iPhone. An iPhone security camera is built
right into your iPhone, but requires some hacking. See how the
police use security cameras next.
Cameras to solve Crime!