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The Ultimate Spy Camera Will Be Lensless And Thinner Than A Pencil Point

Behind the new technology that could revolutionize camera imaging at less than 200 microns in diameter.

As if today in tiny technology couldnt get any better, research scientists at Rambus have released details on the technology that could potentially revolutionize camera-imaging: utilizing a spiral-shaped sensor that maps light, and then lets a computer reconstruct the rest, these clear, glass-based cameras no longer need lenses—and can be reduced to sizes thinner than a pencil point.

Images via

While the technology still has nowhere near the sensor-capabilities of even today's most low-end cell phone camera, it's the mechanism behind these tiny technologies that have us looking towards the future.

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Instead of "seeing" the image in the way that a lens allows reflected light to hit a digital camera's CMOS ("complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor") imager, these are sensors that effectively filter available light into a spiral, which a computer is able to "reconstruct" to the likeness of the original image. Talk about a nightmare for image theory

Below, an image of what the lens-free cameras "see," followed by its computer reconstruction, followed by the original image. Not bad, eh?

While there's still no word on when these gadgets will become readily available to consumer technology, we've got a funny feeling when they catch on, we'll all be seeing things a little differently.

Check out video footage of the lens-free camera technology making its debut at the Mobile World Congress. h/t Yahoo! News & MIT