Sharper shooters

Sensor technology first developed for the automotive sector could improve the performance of digital cameras by removing motion blurring from images, researchers claim.

Engineers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology said their sensor-based system automatically detects and removes blur caused by slight movements as the shutter is pressed.

Rapid advances in digital technology have created a mass market for compact cameras, but blurred pictures still remain a hazard.

The Fraunhofer team, working with German MEMS specialist SiliconDynamics, has designed a super-compact motion sensor which can be made small and cheaply enough to be installed even in a mobile phone camera.

Based on minute gyroscopes machined out of 10µm thick polycrystalline silicon, the sensor is incorporated into a package just 200µm across.

The gyroscopes are made from silicon, said lead researcher Oliver Schwarzelbach, and work on the capacitance principle. Comb-like structures are arranged so that the teeth of one fixed comb are interlinked with the teeth of another that is free to move.