Physicists at Houston Rice University have created the One Pixel Camera… Not one megapixel; one pixel.
(The horror!)The camera produces images by recording thousands of single-pixel images one after the other, rather than simultaneously recording millions of pixels. Photos also take 15 minutes to record.

Though the cameras are not for every day photo use, the benefits in such a creation, lie in the minimal amount of information needed, to assemble an image. The single pixel camera compresses the image data before the pixels are recorded (unlike the usual camera collection of millions of pixels, and then compression). The compression occurs b/c of the numerous small mirrors built in, that encode information about the photographic subject as a whole.

The payoff for this research seems to be the potential in making conventional digital devices even better. If one pixel can be stretched to such an extent, then each megapixel will carry a mile. The technology can also make cameras cheaper and perhaps lead to gigapixel resolution.

Via Physics News