New Applications for Fast and High Resolution Sensors

MIT News reviewed MIT Graphics Group's article presented last week at IEEE Conference on Computer Vision in Kyoto, Japan. The idea is that given enough time, a digital camera could take a dozen photos with different focus distance and software could stitch them into a perfectly focused composite.

For the time being, however, the technique is limited by the speed of camera sensors. So, the group described alternative approach based on "lattice-focal lens," an ordinary lens filter with what look like 12 tiny boxes of different heights clustered at its center. Each box is in fact a lens with a different focal length, which projects an image onto a different part of the camera's sensor. The raw image would look like gobbledygook, but the same type of algorithm that can combine multiple exposures into a coherent composite can also recover a regular photo from the raw image.

More details and articles can be found on Sam Hasinoff page.

Micron Loss on Aptina Spin-Off Corrected to $41M

Micron has just announced its quarterly report with Aptina deal details. It appears that Micron's previously recorded $53M loss on Aptina sale is corrected to $41M now:

"On July 10, 2009, the company sold a 65% interest in Aptina Imaging Corporation (“Aptina”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company and a significant component of its Imaging segment, to Riverwood Capital (“Riverwood”) and TPG Capital (“TPG”). Under the agreement, the company received approximately $35 million in cash and retained a 35% minority stake in Aptina and Riverwood and TPG contributed significant debt-free capital to the independent, privately-held, company. In connection therewith, in the third quarter of fiscal 2009, the company recorded a charge of $53 million, the estimated loss on the transaction, to write down certain Aptina intangible assets and property, plant and equipment to their estimated fair values. The company’s results of operations for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 include a credit of $12 million to adjust the estimated loss to the final loss of $41 million. The company will account for its interest in Aptina under the equity method and will continue to manufacture products for Aptina under a wafer supply agreement."

Visera and Xintec Chairman Gets Back to TSMC

Digitimes: Xintec and Visera chairman, Shang-Yi Chiang is getting back to TSMC as senior VP R&D. In the past Shang-Yi Chiang used to be TSMC's VP R&D, overseeing image sensor development, among many other things.

Update: EETimes adds few more details on Shang-Yi decisions to go from VP R&D to chairman and then back.

Omnivision Announces Design Win for its Small Footprint Sensor

Yahoo: OmniVision announced that its ultra small OV6920 medical image sensor has been selected for ETView's new TVT Tracheoscopic Ventilation Tube. The OV6920 is among the world's smallest available NTSC CMOS image sensors based on 2.5um pixels, enabling TVT camera outer diameter of just 4mm.

Jova Low Cost Image Sensor Tester

EETimes: Jova presents its new image sensor and module tester. The new ISL-3200 tester sells for as $9,995 in volume and supports up to 64MP resolution at 100MHz pixel rate. MIPI/SMIA interfaces are supported through an adapter board.

The new system represents the next generation of Jova's benchtop testers. The company customers include Aurora Optical, Boston Scientific, ExBiblio, HP, Imaging Works, MFlex, NASA, NoblePeak, OmniVision, Palm, Siimpel, TSMC, Tessera and Vista Point Technologies (Flextronics).