Samsung Mobile Sensor May Take Cameras Out of the Picture
Samsung Electronics., Ltd., technology and consumer electronics super giant, recently announced a new mobile image sensor that the company asserts is the first of its kind to exceed the 100 million pixel threshold. The ISOCELL Bright HMX, the result of a collaboration between Xiaomi Corp. and Samsung, is a 108 megapixel 0.8μm image sensor with the resolution of a high quality DSLR camera.
The first mobile image sensor of its size, the ISOCELL Bright HMX is 1/1.33-inches, allowing it to absorb more light and take clearer pictures in poorly lit environs that its predecessors. Additionally, the HMX implements pixel-merging Tetracell technology to imitate big-pixel sensors and provide bright 27Mp images in low light. In brighter conditions, the HMX’s Smart-Iso function intelligently determines the level of amplifier gains required for optimal light-to-electric signal conversion by assessing the level of illumination in its immediate surroundings and utilizing a low ISO for improved pixel saturation. Similarly, the Smart-Iso mechanism will switch to a high ISO in darker environments to reduce noise and optimize clarity.
“For ISOCELL Bright HMX, Xiaomi and Samsung have worked closely together from the early conceptual stage to production that has resulted in a groundbreaking 108Mp image sensor. We are very pleased that picture resolutions previously available only in a few top-tier DSLR cameras can now be designed into smartphones,” according to Lin Bin, co-founder and president of Xiaomi. “As we continue our partnership, we anticipate bringing not only new mobile camera experiences but also a platform through which our users can create unique content.”
As the quality of cameras in smartphones continues to improve, one wonders about the future of consumer digital photography industry as a whole. Professionals and aficionados will probably always use more expensive, traditional cameras equipped with telescopic lenses, but for the amateur photogs of the world, why pay for yet another gadget when their phone can take pictures of equal or better quality? Amateur photography is becoming the exclusive domain of social media apps like Instagram (if it isn’t already), and taking a picture with your phone and posting it is as simple as running your finger over your phone’s display screen a few times. Digital camera manufacturers have responded by designing WiFi and mobile-enabled cameras, thereby eliminating the “inconvenience” of transferring pictures from the camera to a computer before they can be posted on social media and hopefully streamlining the process for millennials with short attention spans. The fundamental question, however, remains… when your smartphone can take pictures of the same quality as a fancy camera, why buy a fancy camera in the first place?
Digital photography is just one of a myriad of industries being disrupted or even completely revolutionized by smartphone technology. Ever wonder how the publisher of Thomas Guides is doing these days? With the inclusion of Google Maps or similar applications in the base software package of every smartphone in the world, who needs them? Now that you can take a picture of a check with your phone and deposit in into your account digitally, how long is it before bank tellers go the way of travel agents? “Automation” is a watchword in the current political arena, with huge swathes of jobs in the manufacturing sector being eliminated every year in favor of robots and automated machines.What happens when entire industries are automated into oblivion? Do digital camera manufacturers move into the smartphone business? Time will tell, but it certainly seems as if the future of all consumer electronics lies in their ability to adapt to a world that runs with just a few swipes of a finger.