Your phone camera has roots in space exploration

HERE’S THE INTERESTING PART

The tiny CMOS active pixel sensor inside your smartphone was originally pioneered by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They desperately needed a highly miniaturized, low-power camera system for interplanetary spacecraft, inadvertently revolutionizing global consumer photography in the process.

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Your phone camera has roots in space exploration — STACKY / Technology

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Your phone camera has roots in space exploration

A bigger world.One discoveryat a time.

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Joseph Nicéphore Niépce captured the oldest surviving photographic image in 1826 or 1827, which required placing a camera obscura facing out of his upstairs window and leaving…

Polaroid was forced into inventing instant photography entirely because the founder's three-year-old daughter threw a tantrum about having to wait for her vacation pictures to be developed.

Not all tech breakthroughs are blessings — 3D printers empowered hobbyists but also fueled ghost guns; the faster we innovate, the harder ethics scramble after, making society…

First ever camera phone was created in 1997 by Philippe Kahn, who jerry-rigged a digital camera, a flip phone, and a laptop in his car while his wife was literally in the hospital giving birth.

How a waffle iron helped create running shoes

When the mouse scroll wheel was first invented, major tech executives fiercely opposed it. Why did they hate this feature?

A bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.