‘I did not foresee at all the social-media application, nor its impact on society': Inventor of the CMOS-based image sensor on how a technology designed to take photos in space has changed the way we view the world

Camera technology has come on leaps and bounds throughout the 20th and 21st century, but one of the most important developments was the invention of the CMOS image sensor. This invention, dubbed the ‘camera-on-a-chip’, is the technology that allows everyone to carry high-resolution cameras around in their pockets.

But the history of the CMOS can be traced back to NASA’s desire to install small, low-powered cameras capable of capturing high-resolution imagery on interplanetary spacecraft.

Dr. Eric R. Fossum is the inventor of the camera-on-a-chip, and he has not only fathered an era of space-based photography, but also the many industries and technologies that revolve around the micro-cameras we know today.

The camera-on-a-chip has changed the world

Before the development of the CMOS image sensor, photography and videography often relied on photographic film, or the more advanced Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs). The Apollo 11 mission famously used purpose-built Hasselblad cameras - which...

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