Single-pixel camera to take on the Megapixel

Researchers at Rice University in Houston, Texas are developing a single-pixel camera aimed at taking on the inefficiencies of the modern digital camera. The single-pixel camera aims to do away with the millions of pixels that are often not needed in a modern image due to redundant or duplicate information in the shot. Whilst the camera is currently the size of a suitcase and bears a resemblance to an old-fashioned pinhole camera, Kevin Kelly, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Rice, states that it is only the beginning of things. Hopefully it will get smaller, he added. What is so inefficient about this (modern digital camera compression) is that we acquire all these numbers for example 10 megapixels only to throw away 80-90% when we do the compression process, explained Dr Kelly's colleague Richard Baraniuk.