Salt Grain-Sized Cameras Can Travel Inside Body

Salt Grain-Sized Cameras Can Travel Inside Body

  11:57:00 PM    Science Lover

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Cameras have shrunk over time, but they've never been this small. 
* German engineers have created the smallest microcameras of their kind.
* The new inexpensive disposable cameras can be produced 25,000 at a time.
* The microcamera's applications include medical and automotive imaging.

A new microcamera developed by German 
researchers measures a mere 1 millimeter on each side.

A new camera is as small as a coarse grain of salt -- the tiniest of its kind. This microcamera could go far: traveling deep into the human body to reveal hidden nooks and crannies. And it could be used in cars to keep drivers safe.


"I have it here on the desk," said Michael Töpper, project manager at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration in Berlin, the large German R&D facility that worked on the device. "If you look at the camera, it's hard to believe that this is working."


Fraunhofer developed the camera with the specialized image sensor company Awaiba, which sought to improve miniaturized cameras for medical applications. Current microcameras require individual, manual manufacturing techniques that have kept costs high. Töpper and his colleagues developed a method to assemble the cameras on a single wafer using specialized polymers to bond the parts.


"The last step is then dicing the image sensor into individual camera chips," he said.


Each of the three sides of the camera measures a mere 1 millimeter. One wafer can be used to assemble 25,000 lenses on 25,000 cameras. The resulting resolution for each of the miniature cameras is in the range of 25,000 pixels. While that's not high enough for a professional photographer, it is high for medical applications, Töpper said.


More efficient manufacturing means lower costs, and the microcameras themselves are disposable. Töpper points to a process for sterilizing reusable endoscopic cameras, saying that usually involves lots of chemicals. Although the new microcameras are not recyclable, he says that they are primarily made from silicon and glass. "There are no hazardous materials."


In medicine, gastroenterologists regularly use small cameras to check patients. Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death, resulting in 150,000 cases every year, according to Dr. Gregory Cooper, a Case Western Reserve University professor of medicine and oncology, and gastroenterologist at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.


"Most colon cancers are thought to be preventable if the patient has a colonoscopy," he said.


Screening for polyps and colorectal cancer can involve a fairly invasive double-balloon endoscope requiring sedation, or a large swallowable "pill cam" that sometimes moves through a 25-foot small bowel too fast to capture all the information.


Dr. Cooper said he thinks the Fraunhofer microcamera technology looks interesting, although he notes that a scope used with the disposable camera would still need sterilization.


"If it can get around some of the current limitations of endoscopy, i.e. the sedation and the need to sterilize things, the limited visualization of the small bowel -- I think it has promise," he said.


At the moment Awaiba is testing the devices, and plans to put the microcameras into production within the next two years, Töpper said. Beyond medicine, the cameras could serve a useful purpose in the automotive industry. Installing them in cars might make camera-assisted parking more ubiquitous, and they could also help monitor drivers who risk falling asleep at the wheel.


"If you think about very, very small cameras, you will find dozens of applications," Töpper said. "Just think about the camera in the phone: 10 years ago everybody was laughing. 'Who needs a camera in a phone?'"

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Watchful windows

Watchful windows

  10:20:00 PM    Science Lover

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New light-sensitive sensor technology could enable your windows to detect intruders and sound an alarm

Ever had that sinking feeling that someone is sneaking around in front of your window, probably trying to break in? With new technology crafted by researchers in Germany, windows and doors might soon be able to detect whether there’s suspicious activity outside your house, and accordingly, sound an alarm.

A novel motion sensor developed by the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied Polymer Research (IAP) in Potsdam-Golm enables window panes and glass doors to detect movements, thanks to a special coating.

If anything changes in front of a pane, or someone sneaks up to it, an alarm is soon sounded.

“The glass is coated with a fluorescent material,” explains IAP group manager Dr Burkhard Elling. “The coating contains nanoparticles that convert light falling on the window into fluorescent radiation.”

How it works

The principle is as follows: The invisible light of an ultraviolet (UV) lamp “illuminates” the window panes, and generates fluorescent radiation in the coating. Sensors in the edges of the window detect this radiation, and thus keep a tab on activities.

A single sensor can perform simple applications: For example, if someone steps into the light of the lamp, less light reaches the coating and less fluorescent radiation is produced – thus triggering the sensor.

If several sensors are installed on all four sides of the window frame, conclusions can be drawn from the data as to how fast and in what direction an object is moving. Its size, too, can be estimated by the sensors.

The invisible light of a UV lamp ‘illuminates’ the window panes and generates fluorescent radiation in the coating. This radiation is detected by sensors in the edges of the window

“This is especially useful in warding off false alarms. For instance, by setting a threshold for the alarm, moving objects that are the size of birds do not set off any sirens,” Elling says.

Likewise, the smart sensors do not react to light from passing cars, as the researchers have developed a software application that can interpret different light signals. This enables the system to easily distinguish between a UV lamp and the slowly changing light from a passing headlight.

“The system has further advantages: For one, it does not infringe on anybody’s personal rights, as it only detects the change in radiation, and not who triggered it,” Elling points out.

“It is also cost-efficient, because the coating can be sprayed onto the windows by airbrush or glued on as a film,” he adds.

A demonstrator system has already been made, and the boffins are aiming to market it at places such as museums.

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