Lecture 2 student scribed notes

Currently there are about 2 billion image sensors in the market and that number rapidly increasing. We also observe that the rate at which the number of cameras in mobile phones is increasing is far greater than the rate at which the number of stand-alone digital still cameras is increasing. A pertinent question to ask is: “Will stand-alone digital cameras become obsolete in the future?” Learning from the history of wrist watches, this doesn’t seem to be unimaginable. With cameras become increasingly smaller and compact (contrast with Fig. 1) it currently costs only about 20 cents (including all the electronics but not the power supply) to incorporate a camera into a mobile phone. It is also interesting to note that NOKIA is the largest manufacturer of cameras today. Especially in developing countries where a common man can afford only a single electronic device, it is more likely that mobile phones with cameras would be preferred over digital still cameras. Currently only < 10% of the world’s population use digital still cameras and not far from now, we could expect to see that number reduce to < 1%.