Eastman Kodak has developed a relatively straightforward change to digital camera image sensors that could help with a major photography bugaboo: poor performance in dim conditions.
The new technology, to be unveiled Thursday and used in products in 2008, increases light sensitivity of existing image sensors by a factor of two to four, said Mike DeLuca, marketing manager for Eastman Kodak's image sensor solutions group.
Translated into photography terms, that means a camera's shutter speed could be cut in half or a quarter, helping cut camera shake or motion blur problems. Alternatively, it could let photographers shoot in low light with less image "noise"--the pesky multicolor speckles that degrade photographs.
"That's the real bane, when you think about it. There's just not enough light to collect," said IDC analyst Christopher Chute. Of Kodak's new method, he said, "It's pretty revolutionary."
And unlike some efforts to improve digital cameras, the new Kodak technique can be applied to any existing image sensor, leading Kodak to hope it will be able to license the high-sensitivity technology far and wide.
"We absolutely feel there is a big opportunity for this...to become a new standard in the industry," DeLuca said. "We really want to propagate this out as far as the market feels it should be taken."
Kodak's new method better reflects how human eyes actually work, separately registering color and brightness information--and devoting more pixels to brightness, where the human eye is sensitive to detail.
The company's technology doesn't require any new fundamental changes to the heart of the image sensor, where a grid of electronic detectors converts incoming light first into electric signals and then digital information. Instead, the new technology adds some neutral "panchromatic" pixels to the usual array of red, green and blue pixels in the grid, then uses a different software algorithm to reconstruct the full-color images from the sensor output.
Pixel patterns
In nearly all of today's digital cameras, each sensor pixel detects either red, green or blue, with those particular colors placed in a quasi-checkerboard arrangement called a Bayer pattern, after the Kodak engineer, Bryce Bayer, who developed it. Every second pixel registers green light, while the remaining pixels capture either red or blue.
With a 12-megapixel Bayer-pattern sensor, 6 million pixels are green, 3 million are red and 3 million are blue. Software reconstructs the full-color image so each pixel has a red, green and blue component through a process called de-mosaicing.
In the high-sensitivity pattern--as yet lacking a formal name--half the pixels capture red, green or blue color information, while the other half are panchromatic pixels that capture only the brightness. So a 12-megapixel sensor would have 6 million panchromatic pixels, 3 million green pixels, 1.5 million red pixels and 1.5 million blue pixels.
Different software algorithms, which typically run in an image processing chip within the camera, must be used to reconstruct a full-color image, DeLuca said. Today that software is a little larger than the Bayer demosaicing software, but with optimization that Kodak now is working on, it should become "comparable."
As a way to deal with low-light shooting problems, Chute said, Kodak's technology is a compelling alternative to expensive image stabilization, which moves lens elements or the sensor to counteract camera shake, or post-processing, which uses software to try to reduce image noise.
From prototype to product Kodak plans to release the technology in several ways. First, it will build it into its own cameras, DeLuca said. Second, it will offer it and the accompanying software with the image sensors it sells to other camera makers--both the CCD (charge-coupled device) sensors it builds itself and the CMOS (complimentary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors that IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) build for it.
And it could license the technology to other companies. "We will engage in conversations with other companies as appropriate," DeLuca said.
The first prototype sensors intended for production use are scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2008, he said. Typically, production-quality chips arrive three to six months after, he added.
Kodak's technology has the potential to spread widely, Chute said. "But first it needs to prove itself. It can't just be a lab rat." And another possible obstacle is intellectual property. Kodak hasn't been afraid to file patent infringement suits against camera makers Olympus and Sony.
It's good that it's relatively easily to add the technology to existing cameras, Chute added, but Kodak shouldn't expect its technology to spread like wildfire. "Camera manufacturers and the photo industry tends to be very conservative. They go with what they have and make it better."
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Fuji's sensor technology is a favorite of wedding photographers because of its higher dynamic range - the difference between the blackest black and the whitest white it can capture in a single photo - makes the wedding dress AND the tux both look good...
I cant wait to get one of these new cameras with this Kodak technology. I like the small cameras but small cameras mean small flash units; with this new sensor technology, the small flash power will not matter. Thanks Kodak !
This strikes me as a potentially pretty important development.
People have focused far too much on resolution in cameras and far too little on overall image quality. Clearly, at this point, resolution is not the gating factor in image quality, but rather things such as high sensitivity in low light situations, motion blur, and focus (if you have better light sensitivity you can get larger depth of field because you can use a smaller aperture). What I really like about the technique is that it addresses the problems of digital photography at the very basic physical level, providing in fact greatly more true light sensitivity. There's just no substitute for real improvements at a physical level.
What I find kind of interesting about the innovation is that it just as easily have been invented and implemented 20 years ago as now -- it's just another variant of a pattern like the Bayer pattern. My guess is that the new pattern really only adds value when resolution is no longer the gating factor -- probably somewhere in the multi-megapixel range. This would of course make it particularly relevant at this stage.
They are like Sony, they will overcharge for their license for this technology. So nobody will use it, and why should they? Fuji has a SuperCCD, and many others are working on better CCDs, not patch-work, make shift retro fits. Kodak has crappy cameras, poor build quality, and are not as "advanced" as they appear.
Bryce Bayer invented and patented the color filter array in 1976. What took so long and what is left to license? Sure there can be variations and probably other coverage, but Bryce had to have retired years ago.
education is a wonderful thing. Kodak makes some of the best point and shoot cameras on the market today. Do some real research and see what the pro.s say rather than egotistical non informist. Nasa,Leica,Hassleblad,pentax and sinar rely on Kodak as well as professional photographers. Next time you are in a store, say Best Buy, 1. pick up any point and shoot. 2. take a picture of a person. 3. go to review and crop he image sensor. 4. compare the quality and picture resolution. 5. I am quite sure you will be suprised. Incidentally, Photokinar in Cologne, Germany just awarded Kodak several awards including best in class for "low light" photography.
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<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3972/hands-on-fujifilm-finepix-s5-pro.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3972/hands-on-fujifilm-finepix-s5-pro.html</a>
Thanks Kodak !
People have focused far too much on resolution in cameras and far too little on overall image quality. Clearly, at this point, resolution is not the gating factor in image quality, but rather things such as high sensitivity in low light situations, motion blur, and focus (if you have better light sensitivity you can get larger depth of field because you can use a smaller aperture). What I really like about the technique is that it addresses the problems of digital photography at the very basic physical level, providing in fact greatly more true light sensitivity. There's just no substitute for real improvements at a physical level.
What I find kind of interesting about the innovation is that it just as easily have been invented and implemented 20 years ago as now -- it's just another variant of a pattern like the Bayer pattern. My guess is that the new pattern really only adds value when resolution is no longer the gating factor -- probably somewhere in the multi-megapixel range. This would of course make it particularly relevant at this stage.
It will obviously be called.....
GREEN-RED+ALGOTITHM-with-BLUE
GRAB for short.
Kodak has crappy cameras, poor build quality, and are not as "advanced" as they appear.