A video camera that is the first to be absolutely self-powered, it can produce an image each second, endlessly, of a bright indoor scene has invented by a research team led by Shree K. Nayar, T.C. Chang Professor of Computer Science at Columbia Engineering . They created a pixel that can not only measure incident light but also convert the incident light into electric power.
The camera does not have a battery but instead a supercap, which is charged to start the camera but is recharged using just energy harvested from the pixels. For a scene that is roughly 300 lux in brightness the camera can produce an image per second, endlessly. K. Nayar leads the Computer Vision Laboratory at Columbia Engineering. He reports that in the last year only, almost two billion cameras of different types were sold worldwide. Digital imaging is expected to implement many emerging fields along with wearable devices, sensor networks, smart environments, personalised medicine, and the Internet of Things. A camera that can function as an untethered device forever without any outward power supply would be especially useful.
At the heart of any digital camera is an image sensor, a chip with millions of pixels. The key enabling device in a pixel is the photodiode, which produces an electric current when exposed to light. This mechanism enables each pixel to measure the intensity of light falling on it. The same photodiode is also used in solar panels to convert incident light to electric power. The photodiode in a camera pixel is used in the photoconductive mode, while in a solar cell it is used in the photovoltaic model.
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