SingleCarrierModulationPhotoDetector
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South Korean image-sensing chip enables 1-lux photography
Taking photos and videos in low-light situations has always involved some kind of tradeoff: you can either crank up the ISO and reduce image quality significantly, use something like Sony's NightShot and add that alien green tint to everything, or trust your image stabilizer to go from wacky-blurry to just pretty-blurry. That might be about to change, though, as South Korea's state-owned Korea Electronics Technology Institute has announced a new image sensor chip that promises to take "vibrant photos" in extreme low-light conditions -- all the way down to 1 lux, which is the equivalent light output of a candle shining one meter away. Details are scarce, but the "single carrier modulation photo detector" chip is said to use some amount of nanotechnology and reportedly cost $10.5 million to develop. We haven't heard when the chip might hit the market, but the Korean government is expecting to make 2 trillion won ($2.1 billion) a year exporting this little guy in the future. We'd put our money on the home team, of course -- expect to see Samsung or LG release no-light cameras before the rest of the pack.
Planet82's CCD sheds new light on night time photography
Snapping super-secret spy pics of unreleased products is hard enough as it is without having to worry about blinding flashes tipping off the guards to our dubious activities. Thankfully, Planet82 has announced a CCD chip dubbed the SMPD -- Single carrier Modulation Photo Detector -- which may be the answer to all our problems. The chip's sensitivity is claimed to be 2,000 times higher than your standard sensor, and it's this vast increase in performance that allows it to capture images without the need for flash. No word yet when these chips will make it into consumer cameras and brighten up all our nightshots, but with some of the crappy pics we've taken, it can't come soon enough.
