14 DAY TRIAL // Image Sensors have come a long way in the last years, and many camera manufacturers have made partnerships with rival companies in order to take advantage of their latest imaging sensors. Thanks to that, Sony now holds 50% share of the entire image sensor market and plans to go even further.
Sony might be the best sensor manufacturer on the market, but it's definitely not the only one. In a recent press release published on BusinessWire, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba announced the development of a new high-speed CMOS image sensor technology called “Bright Mode.”
The new technology will enable future smartphones and tablets to record Full HD video footage at a staggering 240 frames per second (fps), making it the industry's highest frame rate at the moment. Thanks to that, future smart devices will be capable of delivering amazing slow-motion playback.
The new “Bright Mode” technology uses interlaced video output to double exposure times, allowing your device to record high-speed videos without getting underexposed images. This technology also doubles the electrical charge of each pixel, thus delivering images four times brighter than conventional CMOS sensors.
Toshiba will also release an interlace-progressive conversion program that will be capable of converting your videos to high-quality progressive footage, while keeping its original frame rate.
In addition to that, the new Toshiba “Bright Mode” technology will be compatible with a wide range of video applications, such as continuous shooting or high-speed recording slow motion video. Moreover, the CMOS image sensors that will incorporate Toshiba's “Bright Mode” will be able to display 1080p Full HD videos as slow as one-eight standard speed.
The first sample CMOS sensors that come with Toshiba's “Bright Mode” technology will be available starting Q1 2014. If this is what future smart devices are capable of, we wonder what the next generation digital camera sensors will bring.