New KODAK Image Sensor Technology Redefines Digital Image Capture

[DC9]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070614/20070614005114.html?.v=1

Press Release Source: Eastman Kodak Company

New KODAK Image Sensor Technology Redefines Digital Image Capture

Thursday June 14, 8:01 am ET

Next Generation Color Filter Patterns Deliver Higher Quality Photos Under Low-Light Conditions

ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK - News) today introduced a groundbreaking advancement in image sensor technology that will help to make dark, blurry digital photos a thing of the past.

Kodak's new sensor technology provides a 2x to 4x increase in sensitivity to light (from one to two photographic stops) compared to current sensor designs. Image sensors act as the "eye" of a digital camera by converting light into electric charge to begin the capture process.

This breakthrough advances an existing Kodak technology that has become the standard in digital imaging. Today, the design of almost all color image sensors is based on the "Bayer Pattern," an arrangement of red, green, and blue pixels that was first developed by Kodak scientist Dr. Bryce Bayer in 1976. In this design, half of the pixels on the sensor are used to collect green light, with the remaining pixels split evenly between sensitivity to red and blue light. After exposure, software reconstructs a full color signal for each pixel in the final image.

Kodak's new proprietary technology adds panchromatic, or "clear" pixels to the red, green, and blue elements that form the image sensor array. Since these pixels are sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, they collect a significantly higher proportion of the light striking the sensor. By matching these pixel arrangements with advanced software algorithms from Kodak that are optimized for these new patterns, users can realize an increase in photographic speed, directly improving performance when taking pictures under low light. Kodak's new technology also enables faster shutter speeds (to reduce motion blur when imaging moving subjects), as well as the design of smaller pixels (leading to higher resolutions in a given optical format) while retaining performance.

"This represents a new generation of image sensor technology and addresses one of the great challenges facing our industry - how to capture crisp, clear digital images in a poorly lit environment," said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak's Image Sensor Solutions group. "This is a truly innovative approach to improving digital photography in all forms, and it highlights Kodak's unique ability to differentiate its products by delivering advanced digital technologies that really make a difference to the consumer."

Kodak is beginning to work with a number of leading companies to implement this new technology in system-wide solutions and to streamline the design-in process.

Kodak is developing CMOS sensors using this technology for consumer markets such as digital still cameras and camera phones. As the technology is appropriate for use with both CCD and CMOS image sensors, its use can be expanded across Kodak's full portfolio of image sensors, including products targeted to applied imaging markets such as industrial and scientific imaging. The first Kodak sensor to use this technology is expected to be available for sampling in the first quarter of 2008.

For additional information regarding this technology, please contact Image Sensor Solutions, Eastman Kodak Company at (585) 722-4385 or by email at imagers@kodak.com. For more information on Kodak's entire image sensor product line, please visit www.kodak.com/go/imagers.

[Andy_T]

Sounds interesting ... what was the name of the scientist who came up with that?
We have to know his name in order to name future sensor patterns ;-)

Best regards,
Andy

[Ed Kanney]

Does ANYBODY believe ANYTHING Kodak says ANYMORE???

[greg20d]

That was in our paper this morning ...very interesting

[gjl711]

WOW!!! This is a lot like our eye works. The cones provide the color detail and the rods are much more sensitive and wavelength independent. Hopefully the license it to Canon and the 5DII incorporates the first eye-ball sensor. ;):)

[DVS_WiNdz]

wow.. that sounds great. i hope they're going to use that on the 1ds mark III

[Longwatcher]

Basically Kodak is probably taking a variant of some PAN sharpening technology for the concept. In that you use a high-resolution pan-chromatic image to sharpen a not-so high-resolution multi-spectral image.

The clear pixel will probably provide very accurate intensity values, thus you should get a better quality B+w image from the filter (although no color filter would be even better for B+W). And by comparing the surrounding colored pixels to the clear pixel they should be able to get more accurate color information as well.

I see the main problem being with the algorith filtering out IR information from the visible spectrum or they will have to cripple any potential IR capabilities, although thinking about it, having the IR portion available could in theory under most circumstances produce more life-like greens if used in conjunction with the colored filters. As vegetation would show an excessive intensity versus what the filtered pixels are saying, indicating vegetation that should be a certain shade of green. Just a thought.

It will be interesting to see the results, but I suspect it will be at least a couple of years before it is available in practice.

I still lean toward the foveon sensor concept as eventually providing the best color rendition, but this looks promising and simple enough for it to be implemented easily when they work out the software kinks.

[Ron1004]

I found this an interesting read.
Once it's tried and tested on the lower end equipment it may find its way to DSLR's.
------------------
New filter promises crisper photos
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/06/14/low.light.photos.ap/index.html

ROCHESTER, New York (AP) -- A year from now, capturing a crisp, clear image of a candlelit birthday party could be a piece of cake -- even with a camera phone.
Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday it has developed a color-filter technology that at least doubles the sensitivity to light of the image sensor in every digital camera, enabling shutterbugs to take better pictures in poor light.
"Low light can mean trying to get a good image indoors of your kid blowing out the birthday candles. It can mean you want to take a photograph on a street corner in Paris at midnight," said Chris McNiffe, general manager of the photography company's image sensor business. "We're talking about a 2-to-4-times improvement in (light) sensitivity." . . . redacted copyrighted material . . .

[Cathpah]

sounds like sensor technology....not filter technology, which is good because I dont think there's anything you could attach to the front of your lens that could make your glass sharper (aside from a bayonet that is)

[Mark_Cohran]

When I read the title, I clicked on the thread with some skepticism, but as described in the article, this makes pretty good sense.

Mark

[Jim G]

Hmm. Sounds alright - add it to a 1D3 and you'd have, what, ISO 12800-25600 with a 1- to 2-stop gain (2-4x)... that's not half bad.

[gooble]

It is a filter as in the filter sitting on top of the sensor. This will replace Bayer filters.

[Hermeto]

It is a filter as in the filter sitting on top of the sensor. This will replace Bayer filters.

And it will kill Foveon, once for good.. ;)

[tzalman]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0706/07061401kodakhighsens.asp

[tzalman]

Here's another point to consider: As the DPR article mentions, it will make smaller pixels, i.e. higher resolution sensors, possible. I have a feeling the next couple years are going to be very interesting. Anybody want a 40 Mp FF DSLR?

[Photorebel]

sounds like sensor technology....not filter technology, which is good because I dont think there's anything you could attach to the front of your lens that could make your glass sharper (aside from a bayonet that is)

:lol:

Talk about "cutting edge" lenses....

[Sathi]

After hitting up a few articles on this they make it sound like their new design is ready to be put into production. Could be marketing hype but maybe not. Given the now noise performance that the 1D Mark 3 has achieved, I can't even imagine a 2-4X fold increase in performance. In 5 years are flashes going to be obsolete?

[Yohan Pamudji]

And it will kill Foveon, once for good.. ;)
Not really. The new filter is still a color filter. The panchromatic/clear parts of the filter will be used for luminance (brightness) not chrominance (color). So the back-end software still has to extrapolate data to recreate the original color. Foveon sensors capture all 3 colors at each vertically-stacked photosite and don't require the reassembling step of image processing that a Bayer filter and this new Kodak filter still require. These are 2 totally different approaches to capturing light.

[adas]

I'm a bit skeptical regarding color rendition. The red and blue pixels seem quite seldom in those patterns. Lots of guess work.

[ramblingman]

Don't know if this has been brought up here yet, but I thought this part of the forum might find this interesting.

Kodak's New Sensor May Eliminate Flash

Thu Jun 14, 2007 11:58PM EDT
Imagine...no red eye. Period. Or no need for a flash on a digital camera.
Now that digital camera makers have come up with all kinds of ways to eliminate red eye and improve flash technology while stabilizing images, Kodak says it is developing digital technology that will nearly eliminate the need for a flash (http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1949084.htm) (and the oft-accompanying red eye) and improve performance in low-light conditions.
Here's how it would work: The new technology would increase light sensitivity of existing image sensors by two to four times. That means a camera's shutter speed could be cut in half, or at least a quarter, which would reduce camera shake and blurring problems. If it works, it also would allow photographers to shoot in low light without producing grainy, speckled photos.
The proof is in the pixels. In most digital cameras, each sensor pixel detects either the color red, green, or blue and places them into a pattern named for Bryce Bayer, the Kodak engineer who developed it. With the new high-sensitivity technology, half of the pixels will be panchromatic, or clear, so they will capture only the brightness, not color. That means a 12-megapixel camera would have 6 million panchromatic pixels, 3 million green pixels, 1.5 million red pixels, and 1.5 million blue pixels. In comparison, today's 12-megapixel cameras have 6 million green pixels, 3 million red, and 3 million.
The announcement is Kodak's latest big play in an intense bid to rebuild into a digital photography company as its film business dwindles. The company's plan is to make use of its proprietary intellectual property, including this image sensor technology, to compete in the crowded digicam market. Kodak entered the printer business this year with models that are slightly higher priced than competitors' but use ink that retails for about half the cost of other cartridges.
Kodak will build its own cameras with the new technology, but it also plans to sell it to other manufacturers since it works with existing image sensors. The new tech will be available in early 2008, but Kodak has given no word on when the first cameras with it fully built in will be on the market.
On each page in my photo albums of the kids since they were little, there's at least one photo besmirched by red eyes, the scourge of the snap shooter. More and more cameras are including tools to remove red eye in camera, while even the most amateur among us have become pretty adept at removing the demonizing glare with tools on photo software, online photo ordering sites, and in-store kiosks. But built-in technology that eliminates the need to tinker before and post shooting would be a welcome feature in a digital camera.


http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/devlin/11619
Kodak says camera sensor may eliminate flash

By Franklin PaulThu Jun 14, 2:54 PM ET

Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE:EK - news) said on Thursday it has developed digital camera technology that nearly eliminates the need for flash photography, part of the company's effort to make money from its deep patent portfolio.
The world's biggest maker of photographic film says its proprietary sensor technology significantly increases sensitivity to light. Image sensors act as a digital camera's eyes by converting light into an electric charge to begin the capture process.
Kodak, which is in the last year of a lengthy and expensive transformation into a digital photography company as its film business shrinks, intends to lean on its wealth of intellectual property to boost its bottom line, expecting up to $250 million this year alone in royalties and related revenues.
For example, Chief Executive Antonio Perez has previously said its new inkjet printer strategy grew out of the discovery of existing, unused patents for printer ink.
"Our strategy is to get it out of the lab and onto the street," said Chris McNiffe, general manager, Kodak Image Sensor Solutions.
Analysts have looked at that outlook skeptically, since Kodak has given few details about the types of patents it intends to exploit. Moreover they say licensing contracts are incremental and hard to bank on in the long term.
"They have been guarded about their portfolio, with certain degrees of success," said analyst Christopher Chute of research firm IDC. "But at the end of the day you need to have invented something or have some kind of intellectual property in order to maintain a market position."
STOCK RISES
Kodak shares rose to $29.00 -- their highest level in more than a year -- on the news, and traded at $28.47, up 5.3 percent on the New York Stock Exchange early Thursday afternoon.
But while the development points to progress in Kodak's plan it does not remove some of the company's more pressing concerns.
"The monetization of Kodak's IP licensing is a positive to the Kodak story," said independent analyst Shannon Cross, of Cross Research. "However, ... the company still faces challenges from losses associated with its inkjet initiative, pressures from the migration to digital cinema and margin challenges in its digital camera business."
Kodak said the new technology advances an existing Kodak standard in digital imaging. Today, the design of almost all color image sensors is based on the "Bayer Pattern," an arrangement of red, green and blue pixels first developed by Kodak scientist Bryce Bayer in 1976.
In this design, half of the pixels on the sensor are used to collect green light, with the remaining pixels split evenly between sensitivity to red and blue light.
After exposure, software reconstructs a full color signal for each pixel in the final image. Kodak's new proprietary technology adds "clear" pixels to the red, green and blue elements that form the image sensor array, collecting a higher proportion of the light striking the sensor.
Manufacturing customers interested in the design will likely get a chance to sample it in early 2008, but Kodak's McNiffe was unsure when devices using the technology would be in stores. The technology could be used at first in consumer gadgets such as cell phones and eventually products made for industrial and scientific imaging.
IDC's Chute said Kodak would probably use the technology for its own cameras, hoping to gain a competitive edge.
"The potential (for its success) is always there, but it's a wait-and-see thing," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/...k_sensors_dc_2 (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/tc_nm/kodak_sensors_dc_2)

[Calhoun]

Basically Kodak is probably taking a variant of some PAN sharpening technology for the concept. In that you use a high-resolution pan-chromatic image to sharpen a not-so high-resolution multi-spectral image.

The clear pixel will probably provide very accurate intensity values, thus you should get a better quality B+w image from the filter (although no color filter would be even better for B+W). And by comparing the surrounding colored pixels to the clear pixel they should be able to get more accurate color information as well.

I see the main problem being with the algorith filtering out IR information from the visible spectrum or they will have to cripple any potential IR capabilities, although thinking about it, having the IR portion available could in theory under most circumstances produce more life-like greens if used in conjunction with the colored filters. As vegetation would show an excessive intensity versus what the filtered pixels are saying, indicating vegetation that should be a certain shade of green. Just a thought.

It will be interesting to see the results, but I suspect it will be at least a couple of years before it is available in practice.

I still lean toward the foveon sensor concept as eventually providing the best color rendition, but this looks promising and simple enough for it to be implemented easily when they work out the software kinks.


What a simplistic explanation of a complicated topic. :lol:

[picturecrazy]

Interesting. Sensors for brightness only. That's innovative...

But I'll reserve comment until I see sample photos. It could be the next biggest thing, or it could be nothing.

[Jon]

Copyrighted story removed. See also here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=3376289#post3376289). Yet another competing idea on sensor design. I suspect that success or failure will depend on licensing terms as much as technical issues.

[DrPablo]

I see the main problem being with the algorith filtering out IR information from the visible spectrum or they will have to cripple any potential IR capabilities, although thinking about it, having the IR portion available could in theory under most circumstances produce more life-like greens if used in conjunction with the colored filters. As vegetation would show an excessive intensity versus what the filtered pixels are saying, indicating vegetation that should be a certain shade of green.

First of all, as you know IR is not in the visible spectrum. That's why you can't see through 87c filters.

Secondly, if you do long wavelength IR photography, there can be some very significant focus shifts. Even apochromatic lenses are not optimized to focus everything from 400 nm (blue) to 800 nm (IR) on the same plane, and achromatic lenses certainly aren't. Many older lenses have IR focus scales for you to accomodate the focus shift. Allowing IR transmission can be a significant source of blur depending on how much reflected IR there is in your scene. If you allow IR transmission and you block blue with a yellow, orange, or red filter, you can get progressively sharper images by restricting the wavelength transmission and cutting out blue scatter in landscapes. But with all wavelengths allowed to pass through, you'll potentially soften your image.

Thirdly, I think that IR transmission would be insignificant to elevating foliage values in the absence of a deep red or opaque IR filter. Remember that these filters have filter factors of 4 stops (for red #29) up to 10 or 11 stops (for #87). In other words, you're dramatically increasing your exposure parameters in order to record reflected IR. If you have an unfiltered image, then the much more intense values from visible light will really overwhelm any effect of the IR from foliage.

The once difference might be in the intensity of blue values. A camera that is proportionally more red or IR sensitive might give relatively darker blues than one with less red or IR sensitivity. I don't know this for a fact with this sensor discussion, but it's absolutely the case with B&W film.

Older orthochromatic films were only sensitive to blue and nearly always had bright white skies (but brighter, luminous shadows). Newer panchromatic films were more red sensitive, but had darker shadows and darker, more contrasty skies -- think of Ansel Adams, the true master of panchromatic film. Some films like Ilford SFX, Kodak Tmax 100, and Kodak Tech Pan, have expanded red sensitivity (though not really IR), and they therefore produce yet darker skies when unfiltered than standard panchromatic emulsions (which usually need a yellow filter to look 'normal').

[Gidi Morris]

Just a second - how dos this compare to Sigma's sensor?

[gooble]

I'm a bit skeptical regarding color rendition. The red and blue pixels seem quite seldom in those patterns. Lots of guess work.

The article states there is a loss in color rendition. That seems to be the biggest problem.

[MJP]

gary fong might have a problem with this new censor...

[Curtis N]

Kodak is marketing to the consumer masses who don't understand why photographers use flash.

[sixsixfour]

Kodak is marketing to the consumer masses who don't understand why photographers use flash.

Yup. exactly what I thought as well.

[khall]

The same story was in yesterdays Sydney paper.

Ken.

[cosworth]

In 5 years are flashes going to be obsolete?

Nope.

[gjl711]

Maybe not obsolete, but they might just be tiny led lights. imagine walking into your photo studio and giving the old led flashlights a little crank to charge them so you can get the lighting just right. ;):)

[Denny]

I think it's a good tradeoff. Digital cameras can capture a lot of color data, more than needed, but not enough luminance data. Also, our eyes are more sensitive to changes in tonality than color. So while the color won't be as good, probably unnoticeable, we'll definitely notice the difference in the amount of light it can capture.

[Francis Farmer]

i think you will see Kodak getting out of the pro market all together.

[DrPablo]

our eyes are more sensitive to changes in tonality than color.

That's only true at low light levels when our vision is dominated by rods. At higher light levels our vision is dominated by cones, which have the opposite property.