Mini-camera on a chip

Miniaturization is one of the marvels of the 20th century: tape-cassette players no bigger than a tape cassette, thumb-sized cell phones, an all-in-one communicator - Web surfer, stock-price checker, sports-score checker, e-mail - in a gizmo that fits in the palm.

In the 21st century, stuff gets smaller.

Take the video Camera on a chip - anywhere.

Put it on a car's back bumper to watch for blind spots. Stick it atop the computer when you're video conferencing. Tape one on the baby's crib to watch her sleeping like a baby, or tape a dozen around the house as security monitors.

No film needed for these. The chip camera - essentially a low-cost silicon chip about the size of a quarter, to which a lens is attached - captures images via an array of 100,000 optical sensors, or pixels. Each pixel is powered by an external battery to produce real-time motion-picture images that Bell scientists say rival the quality produced by today's digital camcorders.

One prototype camera developed by a research group at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs in New Jersey measures only 3/4 centimeters square, with a tiny plastic lens on top.

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