DIGITAL cameras could be shrunk to half their size if their image sensors were curved, say scientists at Princeton University in New Jersey. By slashing the number of image-correcting lenses needed, the curvy sensors would also make cameras lighter.
Digital cameras produce images by focusing light onto a flat grid made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny light-sensitive components. Photons striking this charge-coupled device (CCD) produce an electrical charge proportional to the energy, and so brightness, of the incoming photons.
To get a high-quality image, the light must first be passed through a complex series of lenses to correct…
