There is a point where taking technology for granted hides some of the incredible capabilities of seemingly simple devices. Optical mice are a great example of this principle, using what are more or less entirely self-contained cameras just for moving the cursor across your screen. Don’t believe us? Check out this camera made from an old optical mouse from [Dycus]!
For those unfamiliar with optical mice, the sensor used for tracking movement, like a camera, is just an array of photosensitive sensors. This allows a simple on-board microcontroller to convert the small changes from the visual sensor into acceleration/movement information to be sent to the computer.
Proving how capable these sensors can truly be, [Dycus]’s camera manages a whole 30×30 array of picture quality. Along with glorious greyscale, the pictures achieved from such a camera are more than recognizable. Putting together the camera didn’t even require anything crazy beyond the sensor itself. What appears to be a Teensy LC board, basic buttons, and a small screen are essentially everything required to replicate the camera’s functionality. Pictures, both standard and “panoramic”, can be viewed in a variety of color palettes stored on board. Along with a surprisingly impressive feature set, the idea is impressive.
Limitations are often the mother of innovation, no matter if self-imposed or not, as seen here. However, [Dycus] still had a whole 30×30 array to photograph. What about a single pixel? Let’s make it even harder; we can’t look directly at the subject! This is exactly what was done here in this impressive demonstration of clever engineering.
Thanks to JohnU and Thinkerer for the tip!
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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