Digicam tech goes wafer-thin, cellphones cheer

It's kinda exciting when new tech comes along that promises a digital camera chip size reduction of 50 percent and cost reduction of 30 percent. That's precisely what has been announced from Tessera Technologies, and cellphone makers worldwide will join in the glee in the near future if they'll be able to slave even more size off of teeny, tiny slim sliders and clamshells. According to Tessera's OptiML product announcement, the "simultaneous manufacturing" allows for the cost and size reduction while still allowing for digital optical zooming and auto-focus, all without any moving parts. Derek Zoolander would be proud.

[kfury Posted Jun 21st 2007 10:43PM]

What is 'digital optical zooming'? Is it physical zooming or just software interpolation/cropping? The latter is worthless and the former (to my knowledge) requires moving parts.

I'm also curious how autofocusing happens without any moving parts, unless there's an array of lenses, which I'm guessing there aren't.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 21st 2007 11:07PM]

I was wondering the same thing.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2007 6:54AM]

i was also wondering the same thing

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2007 12:20PM]

The autofocus is probably done with a liquid lens where the shape of the liquid is electrically controlled.

I was wondering about what "slave off" meant. Was it a typo that should have been "shave off" or are we at the point of neural embeds so our robotic overlords can more easily monitor the breeders?