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Scientists at Duke University in North Carolina have built an experimental camera with more than 30 times the data-collecting capacity of today's best consumer digital devices, a development that could fundamentally alter the way images are captured and viewed.
美国北卡罗来纳州杜克大学(Duke University)的科学家制造出了一台数据采集容量为当今最先进的消费型数码相机30多倍的实验性相机，这一成果可能会彻底改变人们拍摄和观看图片的方式。
While today's best digital cameras take images having pixel counts in the tens of millions, the latest device produces a still or video image with a billion pixels, which is five times more detail than can be seen by a person with 20/20 vision. A pixel is one of the many tiny areas of illumination on a display screen from which an image is composed. The greater the number of pixels, the more detailed the image.
现今最好的数码相机可拍摄分辨率达数千万像素的图片，这款最新的相机能够拍摄10亿级像素的静态图片或视频图像，而且清晰度比完美视力的人眼所能看到的图像要清晰五倍。像素是显示屏上所显示的一个个小方点，它们排列在一起就构成了影像。其他条件相同的情况下，像素数越高拍出来的图片就越清晰。
The experimental Duke device, known as AWARE-2, is a long way from being a commercial product. The current version needs lots of space to house and cool its electronic control boards; it weighs 100 pounds and is about the size of two microwave ovens stacked together. It also takes about 18 seconds to shoot a frame and record the data on a disk.
杜克大学研发的这款实验性相机名为“AWARE-2”，其要实现商业化生产还需很长一段时间。当前这个机型需要很大空间来存放和冷却其电子控制面板。它的重量达100磅（约45公斤），体积约相当于两台微波炉叠在一起。用它来拍摄图片并把数据存在磁盘上需要18秒左右。
The availability of a hand-held gigapixel camera could spark an alternative approach to photography. Instead of deciding where to focus a camera, a user would simply shoot a scene, then later zoom into any part of the picture and view it in extraordinary detail. Desirable or useful portions could thus be identified or 'mined' after the images are captured.
手持式10亿像素级相机的问世可能会引发另一种摄影方式的产生。摄影者不必决定把焦点对准何处，只需把画面拍下来，将图片的任一部分放大即可极其细致地观看它们。在拍完图片之后，摄影者可把满意的或是有用的部分确定下来或者是“抽取”出来。
Taking a picture with a traditional digital camera "is like looking through a soda straw since you can only see a narrow part of the scene," said David Brady, optical engineer at Duke University, who led the team that designed the one-gigapixel camera. "Ours is more like a fire hose-the world comes at you full [blast]".
杜克大学光学工程师戴维•布拉迪(David Brady)说，用传统数码相机拍照就像通过一根苏打水吸管看东西，因为你只能看到一小块画面，而他们的新型相机则更像从消防软管看东西，整个世界完全展现在你的眼前。
Dr. Brady said that when his team used the device to take a photograph of the Seattle skyline, they were able to zoom in and read the "In" and "Out" signs written on a parking garage located half a mile away. Similarly, if the camera were used to take video images of a tennis match, the viewer could zoom in on a player, or on someone at the far end of the stadium, and see both images in equal detail.
布拉迪是这台10亿像素相机研发团队的领头人，他说其团队在用它来拍摄西雅图天际线的图片时，能够把图片放大看到半英里之外一个停车库上写着的“入口”和“出口”标识。同样地，如果观众用这台相机来拍摄网球比赛的视频，也可以把选手或坐在球场远处另一端的观众的图像放大，看到的图像都同样清晰。
Details of the Duke camera were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The $25 million project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Defense. The military is interested in high-resolution cameras as tools for aerial or land-based surveillance.
有关这台相机的详细信息最近发表在了《自然》(Nature)杂志上。这个2500万美元的研究项目由美国国防部尖端研究项目局(Defense Advanced Research Project Agency)资助。美国军方有意将高分辨率相机用于航空及地面监控用途。
Many scientists believe the age of gigapixel photography isn't too far away.
许多科学家都认为，10亿像素级摄影时代距离我们不会太遥远。
The Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii uses several gigapixel cameras, though it is designed for astronomical use. Some drones carry megapixel cameras, but they tend to have a relatively narrow field of view. The Gigapixl Project is using large-format film cameras to create a highly detailed coast-to-coast portrait of North America, focusing on cities, parks and monuments.
夏威夷“全景巡天望远镜与快速反应系统”(Pan-STARRS)的望远镜也使用了数个10亿像素级的相机，但它是用于天文用途的。一些无人机安有百万像素级的摄像头，但它们的视场角往往比较狭窄。10亿像素计划(The Gigapixl Project)正使用大画幅胶片相机拍摄高清晰度的北美全景照片，并把焦点放在城市、公园和纪念碑上。
By comparison, the Duke device the "first cut at making gigapixel" cameras for general use, said Shree Nayar, a computer-vision researcher at Columbia University in New York, who has seen the camera work but wasn't involved in the project. The challenge, he added, is to shrink the electronics and reduce the amount of power the system required.
纽约哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)计算机视觉技术研究者希瑞•纳亚尔(Shree Nayar)称，相比之下，杜克大学研发的相机是促进10亿像素级相机用于普通用途的首台设备。他还说，其中的困难在于如何缩小电路板空间并降低设备所需的电量。纳亚尔观看过这台相机的操作，但他并未参与该研究计划。
The secret of the Duke device is a spherical lens, a design first proposed in the late 19th century. Although very effective spherical lenses exist naturally lenses-the human eye, for example-researchers have long found it tricky to accurately focus images using lab-made versions.
杜克大学所研发的10亿像素相机的秘诀是一个球形镜头，该设计创意最初于19世纪晚期提出。尽管效果非常不错的球形镜头天然就存在（比如人眼），但是长期以来研究人员发现要想用实验性的机型精准对焦还是颇有难度。
The Duke group overcame the challenge by installing nearly 100 micro-cameras, each with a 14-megapixel sensor, on the outside of a small sphere about the size of a football. The set-up yields nearly 100 separate-but accurately focused-images. A computer connected to the sphere then stitches them together to create a composite whole.
杜克大学的研究团队克服了这一困难，他们在一个足球大小的球形小镜头的外部安装了近100台微型相机，每台相机都配有一个1400万像素的传感器。这种配置可拍摄近100张独立而且对焦精准的图片，与球形镜头连接的计算机随后会把它们拼凑在一起合为一张完整的图片。
The camera described in the Nature paper only takes black-and-white pictures. Dr. Brady said his team will finish building a 10-gigapixel color version by year-end and will then construct a 50-gigapixel device.
发表于《自然》杂志的论文所描述的相机只能拍摄黑白照片。布拉迪博士称其团队将于今年年底制成一台100亿像素的彩色相机，并计划在未来制造一台500亿像素的相机。
The team hopes to begin manufacturing industrial-type gigapixel cameras on a limited basis in 2013. But scientists estimate it will take at least several years before a hand-held consumer version of the technology becomes available.
该团队希望在2013年开始对10亿像素相机进行小规模的量产，但是科学家们估计手持式消费型10亿像素级相机至少还需要数年时间才能面市。
