Camera the size of a salt grain captures clear, full color images

The effectiveness of micro-sized cameras in capturing images used in medical diagnostics and robotic sensors has been hindered by technology that produces distorted images with a limited field of view.

Neural nano-optics technology produces clear, full color images. Photo: Princeton University

Now, researchers at Princeton University and the University of Washington have developed a camera the size of a grain of coarse salt -- just half a millimeter wide -- that captures clear, full-color images.

The neural nano-optics system could be used for minimally invasive medical imaging procedures; to improve imaging for robots with size and weight constraints; and to turn surfaces into high-resolution cameras.

The neural nano-optics system has more than one million cylindrical posts that function as optical antennae.

The technology integrates optical surface design and signal processing algorithms to produce an image and can be manufactured on the same scale as a microchip.

Previous technology required a laboratory or ideal conditions to produce high-quality images.

"We could turn individual surfaces into cameras that have ultra-high resolution, so you wouldn't need three cameras on the back of your phone anymore, but the whole back of your phone would become one giant camera," said study senior author Felix Heide of Princeton.

The researchers are adding more computational abilities to the camera, improving image quality and adding capabilities for object detection and other sensing functions relevant to medicine and robotics. (National Science Foundation)

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