CCD and CMOS sensing element take gravid images , but that does n’t mean they ’re perfect . They ’re bulky and bad in depressed light . It turns out thatflash memorycan actually double as a light sensor , and could solve both these problems .
on the face of it , flash memory cadre are highly receptive to luminousness and equal to of create a completely digital ikon . A focused balance beam of light directed at sector on the chip becomes a picture element , no analog - to - digital conversion required . Flash memory board sensors are up to 100x modest than current CCDs , too . By my maths , that have in mind I could have a 200 megapixel tv camera in my pocket flop now .
The drawback : small pixels are less centripetal to light , which could mean problems as pixel density increases . The information also only comes in as binary , so grayscale is tricky . Regardless , the researchers are already achieving better grayscale and humble - light performance than see in CMOS detector .
Edoardo Charbon and the sleep of the squad at the Technical University of Delft hope to have a working paradigm by 2010 . We ’re still waiting for reply from Canon on the rumored , storage - sensor - free-base D40 Pico . [ New ScientistviaWired ]
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