Digital Cameras

Cross-section of a Canon S2-IS camera (produced 2005),
a camera model I used to use personally.

I sold a camera on eBay today for $800. It's a super awesome camera worth several thousand dollars that records video in double-HD (2k) resolution and is usually used in laboratory settings. One of the neat things about it is that, just like on a high-end consumer camera and all professional cameras, its digital sensor is plainly visible when the lens is detached. I started thinking about the sensor and how cool they are then realized many people might not know how these devices actually work. So, how does a digital camera work?

Electronic Displays

When I say "The TV first debuted in -" you say...

"1960?" No, way off.

"1950?" Nope, it was maturing pretty steadily by then.

"1940?" A common answer, but no.

"1930?" It wasn't yet commercialized then, but you're still way off.

"What's the answer, then?" Believe it or not, 1878.

Wireless Charging

I have always been an early adopter of new technologies. I've played the newest video games on the newest systems my whole life, sure, and I even had a CEO-quality PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) when I was in seventh grade. I still have that PDA, in fact, and honest-to-God it STILL holds up to modern smartphones and iPods. One of my proudest early adoptions, however, was of a technology that came and went in the span of a few years with little fanfare. Most people were never even aware of its existence.

That technology was Microsoft's Wrist.NET line of watches. These watches were only slightly larger than normal (although my special-edition Dick Tracy model stuck out obviously and made for fascinating conversations) and were capable of checking email, receiving IMs, checking the news, weather, sports, and stock reports, giving local movie times, and a laundry list of other life-related tasks. They could even tell time. In typical Microsoft fashion, the watches were actually built by third-party manufacturers such as Fossil and Suunto. All of them were more-or-less equals, but Fossils' stood out from the crowd (in my mind) for one key feature: the watches could be charged without wires.

This was not only handy - they had the battery life of an average cell phone - but just downright COOL in my book. It seemed magical that somehow electricity was being transfered from one place to another, and the only parts touching were made of PLASTIC.

Blade-less Fans

If you've been into Best Buy at any point in the last year or so, you've almost certainly done a double-take as you walked past a seemingly benign end-cap displaying two flashy window fans. Last year, Dyson (the company that introduced to the world the bag-less cyclone vacuum that never loses suction) came out with yet another elegant, innovative, and very expensive product for the market...the blade-less fan.

When I say blade-less fan, that's literally what I mean (although Dyson has decided to name it something a bit more inventive - the "Dyson Air Multiplier.") The fan consists of a cylindrical pedestal with dial and button controls, on top of which is an over sized wedding band with nothing in the center. Essentially a donut on a stick, except the stick is really fat and the donut rather thin.