Patrick Gill is excited to show me a small, fuzzy-looking picture of the Mona Lisa, printed in black and white on a piece of paper. It’s not much to look at, literally, but it’s unmistakably her, with long dark hair and that mysterious smile.
Emerging Solutions
Best of Mobile World Congress 2014
It’s the world’s largest event dedicated solely to mobile technology. Mobile World Congress brings together some of the biggest names in tech from around the globe to show off innovative, exciting and forward-thinking products. We joined the 72,000 other folks from 79 countries in Barcelona, slogging it out on the show floor to uncover the most compelling innovations. From futuristic fitness gear to the world’s smallest camera, these are the five most groundbreaking items from Mobile World Congress 2014.
Rambus promises much better images with tech
Rambus is working on two technologies that could potentially transform the imaging market. The one closer to market is the Binary Pixel.
Tiny Lensless Camera Uses Algorithms to Convert Light to Pictures
How small is your smallest camera? Even if it’s a nearly-invisible spycam, your shooter will be huge in comparison to a new smart image sensor that’s just 200 microns wide, giving it less girth than three human hairs. Developed in Rambus’s imaging laboratory, the prototype is so small that it doesn’t even have a lens, using algorithms to convert the spherical patterns of light it “sees” back into recognizable images.
Rambus Pursues Disposable PicoCam
Rambus is developing a so-called pico-camera, a lens-free device significantly cheaper and smaller than today’s tiniest imagers. The technique still requires significant computation to deliver even a blurry image, however the company sees an initial opportunity to enter the market as a thermal camera.
Smartphone cameras: What’s coming next (Smartphones Unlocked)
It wasn’t all that long ago that a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back of your smartphone was reason to show off. Now, phone-makers like Nokia and Samsung are forging a new frontier of mobile photography aimed at incorporating the technology of a point-and-shoot into the smartphone bundle.