This is The World's Smallest Video Camera and It's The Size of a Grain of Sand

The world's smallest video camera is so tiny, that it could easily get lost in your pocket lint! Developed by some smarty pants researchers at the University of Washington and brought to life by the gang over at OmniVision Technologies, this little camera is absolutely ridiculous.

So, just how small are we talking about? It’s a measly 0.65 x 0.65 x 1.158 mm in size, which is about the size of a grain of sand! So, you probably wouldn’t want to take it to the beach with you.

The camera is built on a metasurface made up of over 1.6 million cylindrical posts that act like a camera sensor. Each post works as an optical antenna, receiving light and shaping the optical wavefront, which is seriously some next-level stuff.

Despite its minuscule size, this camera can capture images at a resolution of 200 x 200 (that's 40,000 pixels) at 30 frames per second. To put that in perspective, that’s even better than a Gameboy screen, and it's in full color too!

Sure, it's not HD, but let's cut it some slack. The camera was specifically designed to fit inside human veins to assist doctors with diagnosis and surgery, which is pretty crazy! It's amazing what technology can do these days.

Oh yeah, it’s also the Guinness World Record winner for “The Smallest Commercially Available Image Sensor.”

Here are the details that were shared:

OMNIVISION’s OVM6948 CameraCubeChip®® is a fully packaged, wafer-level camera module measuring 0.65 mm x 0.65 mm, with a z-height of just 1.158 mm, ideal for disposable devices operating from the smallest part of the anatomy. The camera module is derived from an ultra small image sensor, the OV6948, winner of the Guinness World Record for “The Smallest Commercially Available Image Sensor*,” with its size of 0.575 mm x 0.575 mm. This complete module can be integrated into a disposable guidewire, catheter or endoscope with a diameter as small as 1.0 mm. With this camera’s small size and high 200 x 200, or 40 KPixel backside-illuminated resolution, high quality images can be captured from within the body’s narrowest blood vessels for neuro, ophthalmic, ENT, cardiac, spinal, urology, gynecology and arthroscopy procedures.

The OVM6948 is the only ultra small “chip on tip” camera with backside illumination, which provides excellent image quality and better low-light performance to help reduce LED heat, along with improved sensitivity. It offers a compact, high quality solution for disposable guidewires, catheters and endoscopes, which are experiencing growing demand because of their ability to reduce cross-contamination risks, downtime inefficiencies and costs associated with the repairs, preprocedural testing and sterilization of reusable endoscopes. Benefiting from the sensor’s low power consumption of a mere 25 mW, less heat is generated for better patient comfort and flexible procedure durations.

Other key features of this camera module include a wide 120-degree field of view and an extended focus range of 3 mm to 30 mm. Its image array is capable of capturing 200 x 200 resolution images and video at up to 30 frames per second, and its analog output that can transmit over 4 meters with minimal noise.

* Current Guinness World record title issued to OMNIVISION Technologies, Inc.: Smallest Commercially Available Image Sensor. The smallest commercially available image sensor is the OV6948, measuring 0.575 mm x 0.575 mm x 0.232 mm, made by OMNIVISION Technologies, Inc. (USA). The record is based on product testing and market research carried out by Transparency Market Research in Pune, India, on 10 April 2019.