Why not a ROUND sensor?

[Speenth]

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Maybe the curved receptor is getting closer - first micro 4/3, now this:

 

Curved electronic eye created : Nature News

 

Interesting - this concept, by the nature of its construction, seems to have few limitations on its potential application or sophistication. As the Nature article suggests, electronics permit such a system to build an image from multiple 'exposures' just as do the eyes and brain of an animal. That image building software is well established already - I can't imagine it would be difficult in the long-term to combine all this in future P&S cameras; Leica or otherwise.

[krabat]

Let's not forget round photo paper .

Very important, and a great idea!

And if one day you don't like the image on it any more, you still can use it as a beer mat (or a beer coaster for our American friends)... :D

[Riley]

just when i was thinking square lenses and round shutters

[SJP]

Other suggestion: hexagonal sensor with triangular or hexagonal pixels

[Speenth]

You're all focusing on the title of the thread - read the article!

 

Curved electronic eye created : Nature News

 

Here is just one extract:

 

" The team made a hollow dome about 2 centimetres wide from a rubber-like material. They flattened out the stretchy dome, and attached the electronic mesh [of silicon photodetectors]. Then, as the hollow dome snapped back into its original shape, it pulled the array with it, forming a hemisphere that could be attached to a lens; the basis of the camera.

 

The ability to wrap high quality silicon devices onto complex surfaces ... adds very interesting and powerful capabilities to electronic and optoelectronic device design ... it allows us to put electronics in places where we couldn't before."

 

The implication is a sensor array that can be moulded to the optimal imaging plane. Even more extraordinarily - the potential exists for the array's shape to be freely adjustable, perhaps to match the characteristics of any lens attached to the camera - truly an interesting incentive to have those old lenses coded!