Exclusive interview with Mats Wernersson, Sony Ericsson
17 January 2012
Mats Wernersson, Master Engineer - Camera Research, Sony Ericsson provides his insight into the camera phones market for image sensors
Q: Please briefly describe your background in image sensors?
A: I have been working with CMOS sensors in camera phone implementations since 2001.
Q: Cameraphones are one of the fastest moving markets for image sensors - what have been the main technology milestones over the last 10 years?
A: The most important step was the introduction of CMOS sensors. CCD sensors were used in early camera phones but they required a lot of support circuits at additional cost and physical size. The improvements in the CMOS technology have been dramatic. There have been many small incremental improvements that have led to the very good SNR of today's sensors.
Q: The megapixel race seems to be over, as consumers are becoming more savvy about the quality of the images their devices capture - how does this affect you and how do you react to these needs?
A: It is a relief that we don't have to hunt for a larger number of pixels for every new generation of phones. But there is still some market pressure for high numbers. We could make a better balanced system with somewhat better perceived image quality if we could pick the megapixel number purely from a technical and image quality point of view.
Q: To what extent do consumer behaviours (i.e. what they do with their images post-capture) affect your development goals?
A: We always consider various use cases. You sometimes hear that people don't print their pictures and you may get a number like "just 10% print pictures" to support the statement. While that is probably true I still think that we have to support those customers well. You don't print many pictures but when you do you expect good quality. I can't imagine a restaurant owner saying that they can afford to serve bad fish just because only 10% of the guests order fish.
Q: What are the main challenges you are currently facing in terms of R&D?
A: The big challenge is always to make the best compromises. A phone camera cannot be optimized for just quality and performance. We have to consider physical size, cost, power consumption and system architecture as well. Another challenge is to get new technology into a system where the architecture has been defined years ago.
Q: What new technologies or changing technology drivers are around the corner?
A: I expect a lot of things to happen with various types of computational cameras. We are getting a big increase in computational power as GPUs become much faster. It is exciting to see the world of image processing merge with computer graphics.
Q: Finally, we are pleased to have you on board for the conference this year, what are you hoping to gain from the conference?
A: I'm looking forward to hear about the progress in areas like global shutters and light sensitivity but also about more exotic technologies like sensors for plenoptic cameras, time of flight etc. And it's of course a great opportunity to meet with people in the industry.
Mats Wernersson will be providing a keynote presentation at Image Sensors 2012 on next generation camera phones - trends and technologies.
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