Microchip-sized digital camera for surveillance
In today’s minicams, the image sensors and support circuitry are on separate microchips, and most of the power goes on communication between the chips; Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena has squeezed all the components of a camera onto one low-power chip
We wrote several stories about the interest of the military and first responders in small — very small — surveillance robots that could fly, inconspicuously, not only over an area to be looked at — but also inside buildings in which the enemy was hiding, collecting and transmitting information to the forces outside. A parallel effort, but with similar goal, was funded by DARPA — a project to equip insects with reconnaissance gear (see 4 October 2007 HS Daily Wire).
A microchip-sized digital camera patented by the California Institute of Technology could provide vision for the U.S. military’s insect-sized aircraft. It is light enough to be carried by these tiny surveillance drones and also uses very little power.
In today’s minicams, the image sensors and support circuitry are on separate microchips, and most of the power goes on communication between the chips. Now, with Pentagon and NASA funding, Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena has squeezed all the components of a camera onto one low-power chip, revealed in a U.S. patent filed last week.
The gadget can be radio-controlled via a secure frequency-hopping link from up to a kilometer away, say its inventors.
