DARPA successfully tests experimental gigapixel cameras
06 July 2012
Cameras with 1.4 and 0.96 gigapixel resolution, currently being developed by DARPA’s Advanced Wide FOV Architectures for Image Reconstruction and Exploitation (AWARE) programme, have been successfully tested at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC. The gigapixel cameras combine 100 to 150 small cameras with a spherical objective lens.
Local aberration correction and focus in the small cameras enable extremely high resolution shots with smaller system volume and less distortion than traditional wide field lens systems. The DARPA effort hopes to produce resolution up to 10 and 50 gigapixels — much higher resolution than the human eye can see. Analogous to a parallel-processor supercomputer, the AWARE camera design uses parallel multi-scale micro cameras to form a wide field panoramic image.
Visit the AWARE site.