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Hoping to bridge the gap between camera phones and real digital cameras, imaging innovator Kodak has created a new chip that will help manufacturers slash development costs and deliver true camera functionalities.

Dubbed as the KODAK KAC-05020 Image Sensor, it is the world’s first 1.4 micron, 5-megapixel device that can capture high quality images and videos even in low light conditions. Though 5-megapixel cameras are already available in some expensive smartphones, most camera phones still produce blurry images and videos filled with unnecessary background noise.

“Camera phones and other small-pixel consumer imaging devices often suffer from poor performance, especially under low light conditions. To manufacture sensors that utilize these very small pixels – only two to three times the wavelength of visible light – we needed to challenge everything we knew about pixel and sensor design,” said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak’s Image Sensor Solutions business. “By completely rethinking the design of the CMOS pixel and leveraging our work with high sensitivity color filter patterns and algorithms, Kodak was able to develop this remarkable new sensor that will enable a level of imaging performance previously unavailable from CMOS devices.”

Thanks to this patented imaging technology it will also deliver other useful features to camera phones that are commonly found in digital cameras such as red-eye reduction, rapid auto-focus, digital image stabilization and facial recognition.

Read [Business Wire]