How thin can a camera be? Very, say Rice University researchers who have developed patented prototypes of their technological breakthrough.
FlatCam, invented by the Rice labs of electrical and computer engineers Richard Baraniuk and Ashok Veeraraghavan, is little more than a thin sensor chip with a mask that replaces lenses in a traditional camera.
"We can make curved cameras, or wallpaper that's actually a camera," says Richard Baraniuk, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice University. "You can have a camera on your credit card or a camera in an ultrathin tablet computer."
Making it practical are the sophisticated computer algorithms that process what the sensor detects and converts the sensor measurements into images and videos. more
