Now that’s high resolution!

Cypress Semiconductor have announced a 25 megapixel CMOS sensor capable of 53 frames per second (“Cypress Introduces Industry’s Highest Throughput Pipelined Global Shutter CMOS Image Sensor.” EDACafé blog, June 3rd, 2010)

How long will it be before someone incorporates it into a machine vision camera? I have a feeling we’ll see a 25Mp camera advertised before year end. It won’t be cheap though. My camera price rule of thumb has long been $1,000 per megapixel, although that does seem to be shifting downwards at the moment. Even so, my guess is that a 25Mp camera will be priced at a whisker under $20,000.

That might not sound like a bargain, but it depends on your application. For traffic and security applications a sensor like this provides terrific ability to zoom in on fine details while simultaneously capturing a large field of view. (Just like the way, in cop shows and movies, the hero will ask the resident nerd to “zoom in – now enhance” to produce a beautifully clear image of a license plate.)

As for my industrial, and price sensitive, applications – I guess I’ll be sticking with sensors of 1600 x 1200 pixel format for now.