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55. The All-Seeing Eye

A new camera snaps shots one billion pixels in resolution.

By Valerie Ross
Jan 23, 2013 4:29 PMNov 12, 2019 4:48 AM
camera.jpg
A military-funded camera. | Courtesy Duke University

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Professional digital cameras snap shots with a resolution of 20 or 30 megapixels. Electrical engineer David Brady at Duke University has created a camera that takes one-gigapixel pictures.

He and his team arranged 98 microcameras in a dome. A unique computing system knits the 98 snapshots into a billion-pixel image, so detailed that viewers can read a license plate shot from a third of a mile away. The tech could eventually find its way into personal cameras. Meanwhile, Brady and his colleagues started building a five-gigapixel commercial version this past fall.

Courtesy Duke University
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