What’s the smallest camera in the world?  By smallest we mean 100th of a millimeter thick and one-half millimeter on each side.  Built on a flat piece of doped silicon, which looks something like a tiny CD, with no parts that require off-chip manufacturing (certainly no lenses and no moving parts).  The camera resolves images about 20 pixels across through the use of the Fourier Transform.  

As you can see from the image, the quality is rather poor but, given its size and cost (just fractions of a penny to make), it has enough resolution to give virtually all gadgets and robots the gift of sight. 


Applications: 

There are a myriad of potential applications.  The Fast Company mentions a few:  "The camera is so simple it could be built into the fingertips of android robots to help them work out how to best hold an object, or even to aid with object recognition.  Sensor arrays on buildings could use the camera to work out the angle of the Sun, removing the need for more expensive timing units.  Dozens of the devices could be integrated into the screen of a smartphone, to act as a lens-less webcam, or even a more sophisticated touch recognition system.  Vacuum-cleaner robots could benefit from multiple camera angles to help them navigate and find every grubby corner of your home to clean".

Inventor:
The camera was invented in Cornell's Alyosha Molnar's lab, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and developed by a group led by Patrick Gil, a post doctoral associate of the same University.  The working prototype was detailed online in the journal Optics Letters on July 6th of this year.