Camera Technology

Sept. 23–DURHAM — A company spun out of a Duke University laboratory is looking to commercialize camera technology that takes pictures in great detail — digital images with more than a billion pixels — across a wide field of view.

The cameras are still in the prototype development stage. But by next year, they hope to be able to have the manufacturing process developed to be able to make cameras at a regular rate for a variety of commercial uses. They see their cameras as potentially attractive for security, events or online publishing applications.

The Durham-based company Aqueti is looking to commercialize work done through A research project at Duke University funded with $25 million from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Through the project, they’ve built two prototype cameras that are each about the size of two microwave ovens stacked on top of each other.

They built a camera that can take images with a billion pixels, or 1 gigapixel, as well as a 1.5-gigapixel camera, said David Brady, a professor of electrical engineering at Duke University. Brady is the principal of the research project and a founder of Aqueti. He said they’re now also working on a 5-gigapixel camera.

The cameras were constructed through a collaboration by researchers and engineers. Duke University was the lead institution. Others were involved from businesses and institutions including the University of California, San Diego, RPC Photonics, Distant Focus Corp., the University of Arizona, and Raytheon Corp.
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