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The digital camera is another great example of a technology we take for granted.
without questioning how it works.
I have to know how things work.
No good reason for that.
That makes me a slow, but tenacious, learner.
And really annoying when Jeopardy!
paimei01via Flickr.com
The underlying technology of the digital camera is a light sensor and a program.
Kind of like the programs that help make your microwave oven or iPod work.
I’ll focus on the CCD first.
The mechanics of how they do what they do differ, but the principles are the same.
You know that a solar cell takes light energy and converts it to electrical energy right?
And you probably figured that the more light there is the more energy it makes and vice versa right?
So you’re able to see where we’re going with this whole CCD thing.
Each of those little squares on the CCD takes light energy and converts it to electrical energy.
Each condition of the light - like brightness and intensity - generates a very specific electrical charge.
The firmware puts those puzzle pieces together to form an image that is recognizable to the human eye.
The process of putting it together is very much akin to what happens with your television or monitor.
It does this using pixels.
Each pixel is comprised of three basic colours - red, green and blue.
This is known as aBayer filter.
Get up close with your monitor - to the point where you could see the pixels individually.
Except when it comes to my kids.
You might need a magnifying glass.
Did you see how there were more green pixels than red or blue?
The next step is for the firmware to record the information it saw into digital code.
That code can be used to accurately reproduce the picture time and time again.
Call it a recipe for that specific moment in time that you captured.
And now you know how that all works.
Hopefully taking the mystery away hasn’t ruined the experience for you.
I hope you enjoyed this high level overview of how these things work.
