EPFL researchers working with scientists from Canon have developed a replacement camera which will image the littlest particle of light- the photon. The camera they created is named the MegaX and is claimed to be the culmination of over 15 years of research on single-photon avalanche diodes or SPADs. SPADs are photo sensors that are utilized in the next-generation image-centered technology.
The significant feature of the camera that the scientists have created is that it’s ready to capture and count photons, which are invisible to the human eye. Humans are only ready to see continuous beams photons, like those utilized in laser pointers. MegaX can fill in trajectories of individual photons and rays of sunshine . The team says that once they are shown in video form, they appear like shooting stars.
To be ready to see individual photons move, the team had to slow the film speed by an element of 300 million. MegaX is extremely fast and may take up to 24,000 images per second. to match , movies are filmed at 24 images per second. MegaX also boasts a really large dynamic range and may produce 3D representations along side performing in-depth segmentation of these representations, at an equivalent time.
The team behind MegaX says that it might be used for applications that incorporate virtual and augmented reality. The camera is in a position to capture individual photons and convert them into electrical signals that are stored in memory. the method of obtaining the photons takes one nanosecond. The camera is additionally ready to detect precisely when the photon hits the sensor and measure what proportion time it took for the photon to travel between the thing that emitted it and therefore the camera. that permits it to calculate the space or time-of-flight from the source that emitted the photon.
Time-of-flight is especially important to permit the camera to get the pictures quickly. A key feature of the camera is its ability to capture Very light and really dark areas at an equivalent time, substantially increasing dynamic range. The team is currently working to scale back the pixel size of the camera, which is currently very large at 9 µm compared to the 0.9 µm pixel size of a daily camera.
