‘I did not foresee at all the social-media application, nor its impact on society': Inventor of the CMOS-based image sensor on how a technology designed to take photos in space has changed the way we view the world
Camera technology has come on leaps and bounds throughout the 20th and 21st century, but one of the most important developments was the invention of the CMOS image sensor.
This invention, dubbed the ‘camera-on-a-chip’, is the technology that allows everyone to carry high-resolution cameras around in their pockets.
But the history of the CMOS can be traced back to NASA’s desire to install small, low-powered cameras capable of capturing high-resolution imagery on interplanetary spacecraft.
Dr.
Eric R.
Fossum is the inventor of the camera-on-a-chip, and he has not only fathered an era of space-based photography, but also the many industries and technologies that revolve around the micro-cameras we know today.
The camera-on-a-chip has changed the world Before the development of the CMOS image sensor, photography and videography often relied on photographic film, or the more advanced Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs).
The Apollo 11 mission famously used purpose-built Hasselblad cameras - which were too heavy for the return trip to Earth - requiring the astronauts to transport just the film back for development.
They’re still there to this day.
CCDs on the other hand were the precursor to Dr.
Fossum’s camera-on-a-chip.
They detected photons using individual pixels that fed an electrical charge to a single readout amplifier in a row-by-row configuration.
These cameras improved significantly in reducing weight and capturing much more vivid imagery than their film-based counterparts, but suffered from high power-usage and heat generation.
CMOS image sensors improved further on the CCD design, giving each individual pixel its own local conversion circuit and amplifier allowing each pixel to be read simultaneously while significantly reducing the energy required per image taken and the heat generated by the camera.
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