Article Abstracts | March 2008
The complete article appears in the March 2008 issue of Photonics Spectra. If you do not have a copy of this issue,
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VGA Imagers in Camera Phones
Despite a drive for higher resolution, the old standard is sticking around.
by Giles Humpston, Tessera
Early cell phones had very low resolution imagers, typically 0.1 megapixels. This resulted in barely acceptable picture quality. Consequently, the imager resolution moved quickly from the common intermediate format to video graphics array (VGA), which provides three times the number of pixels and a noticeable improvement in picture quality compared with common intermediate format (Table 1).
The increased pixel number confirmed a perception that more pixels mean better-quality photos. This perception was bolstered by the fact that megapixels are a readily quantifiable metric that can be used for sales purposes, despite the tenuous relationship between megapixels and picture quality...
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