Smartphone Cameras

People take a lot of pictures.  More than one quarter of them are taken with smartphones according to Wired magazine.  This statistic is expected to increase dramatically in coming years as manufacturers improve chip technology and incorporate it into smartphones.

Earlier in this blog the image below appeared to stress the changes in computer technology over the past 10 years, so that a mere handheld device could perform many of the functions of a stand alone computer.

Current technology will not allow a smart phone to compete with a dedicated camera in terms of quality output.  But there is a push to develop new chips, new software, new optics and in the case of the Lytro camera system a new means of capturing light that may result in the same dramatic change in camera size that occurred with computers illustrated above.

To view a discussion of the changes on the horizon go to: WIRED.