A MICROCHIP-sized digital camera patented by the California Institute of Technology could provide vision for the US military's insect-sized aircraft. It is light enough to be carried by these tiny surveillance drones and also uses very little power.
In today's minicams, the image sensors and support circuitry are on separate microchips, and most of the power goes on communication between the chips. Now with Pentagon and NASA funding, Caltech's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena has squeezed all the components of a camera onto one low-power chip, revealed in a US patent filed last week (www.tinyurl.com/ojwmdq).
The gadget can be radio-controlled via a secure frequency-hopping link from up to a kilometre away, say its inventors.
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