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Cellular Phone Camera
Cameras in
Cell Phones
Today, almost all cell phones have a
camera--both still and video. People use these cameras for all sorts of
different uses from taking pictures of themselves to taking pictures of
toys at a store to send to a relative to make sure that is what ot
purchase. Video cell phone cameras are used to take videos of crimes and
worthy events and sent to major networks for broadcast. It is hard to
imagine a cell phone without a camera today. Cell phone cameras are very
prevalent.
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The camera
phone, like many complex systems, is the result of converging
technologies. They are a combination of many years of innovation in
different disciplines that come together to make a new technology. There
are many patents dating back as far as the 1960s. Compared to digital
cameras of the 1990s, a consumer-viable camera in a mobile phone would
require far less power and a higher level of camera electronics
integration to permit the miniaturization needed for a cellular camera.
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The world's
first wireless camera phone prototype, known as the 'Intellect',
was developed in 1993 by inventor Daniel A. Henderson. This
device was designed to receive pictures and video data sent from
a message originator to a message center for transmission and
display on a wireless device such as a cellular telephone.
However, the complete integration of the cellular phone, digital
camera and its wireless transmission infrastructure would take a
few more years to complete. The prototype models were donated to
the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2007.
Over the years there have been many videophones and cameras
that include communications technologies. There were several
digital cameras with cellular phone transmission capability
shown by companies such as Kodak, Olympus in the early 90s.
There was also a digital camera with cellular phone designed by
Shosaku Kawashima of Canon in Japan in May 1997.
On June 11, 1997, Philippe Kahn instantly shared the first pictures
from the maternity ward where his daughter Sophie was born, with
more than 2000 family, friends and associates around the world.
A sharing infrastructure and an integrated cell-phone and camera
combo augured the birth of instant visual communications.
In Japan, two competing projects were run by Sharp and
Kyocera in 1997. Both had cell phones with integrated cameras.
However, the Kyocera system was designed as a peer-to-peer
video-phone as opposed to the Sharp project which was initially
focused on sharing instant pictures.
The first commercial camera phone complete with
infrastructure was the J-SH04, made by Sharp Corporation, had an
integrated CCD sensor, with the Sha-Mail (Picture-Mail in
Japanese) infrastructure developed in collaboration with Kahn's
LightSurf venture, and marketed from 2001 by J-Phone in Japan
today owned by Softbank. The first commercial deployment in
North America of camera phones was in 2002. The Sprint wireless
carriers deployed over one million camera phone manufactured by
Sanyo and launched by the PictureMail infrastructure (Sha-Mail
in English) developed and managed by LightSurf.
Camera phones can share pictures instantly and automatically
via a sharing infrastructure integrated with the carrier
network, thus negating the need for connecting cables or
removable media to transfer pictures. Some camera phones use
CMOS image sensors, due largely to reduced power consumption
compared to CCD type cameras, which are also used. The lower
power consumption prevents the camera from quickly depleting the
phone's battery. Images are usually saved in the JPEG file
format, and the wireless infrastructure manages the sharing. The
sharing infrastructure is critical and explains the early
successes of J-Phone and DoCoMo in Japan as well as Sprint and
other carriers in the United States and the widespread success
worldwide.
The camera feature proved popular right from the start, as J-Phone
in Japan had more than half of its subscribers using camera
phones in two years. The world soon followed. By 2003 more
camera phones were sold worldwide than stand-alone digital
cameras. In 2004 Nokia became the world's most sold digital
camera brand. In 2006 half of the world's mobile phones had a
built-in camera. In 2008 Nokia sold more camera phones than
Kodak sells film based simple cameras, and thus Nokia is now
even the biggest manufacturer of any kind of camera. As a direct
result of the rapid popularity of camera phones, two of the four
giant camera makers, Minolta and Konica have quit the camera
business altogether. At the end of 2008, the world installed
base of camera phones was 1.9 billion.
Major manufacturers include Toshiba, Sharp, Nokia, Sanyo,
Samsung, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and LG Electronics..
The resolution is typically in the megapixel range. |
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