Currently the images taken by the camera are very crude and grainy A camera powered by the light it uses to take pictures has been invented by American scientists.
The camera generates power by converting some of the light falling on its sensor into electricity that is then used to take a snap.
Theoretically the self-powered device could take a picture every second, forever.
The camera's creators are now refining the device and are looking into ways to commercialise the technology. Combined sensor
"We are in the middle of a digital imaging revolution," said Prof Shree Nayar, director of the computer vision laboratory at Columbia University in New York who invented the device. "A camera that can function as an untethered device forever - without any external power supply - would be incredibly useful."
Prof Nayar said the route to creating the device opened up when he realised that solar panels and digital cameras use almost the same component, known as a photodiode, to handle light. Working with engineers, Prof Nayar managed to create a photodiode that combined the light-sensing abilities of a camera with the power-converting properties seen in solar panels.
The next step was to use lots of the combined photodiodes to form a grid that both senses the intensity of light falling on it and converts some of that illumination into power that captures an image.
The prototype sensor grid is just 30 by 40 pixels in size and currently takes grainy black and white images.
To demonstrate its abilities, Prof Nayar and colleagues used their self-powered camera to shoot a short film.
Prof Nayar told the BBC that the next step in development was to make a self-powered, solid-state image sensor with many more pixels that could then be used to produce a standalone camera that could be used anywhere.
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Your light bulbs have more chance of bursting before the camera stops filming.
Battery drain can put a damper on any photographer's day. But a group of Columbia University computer scientists may have the solution.
The research team, led by professor Shree Nayar, developed a prototype self-powered video camera that converts light into energy. Set up in a well-lit indoor scene, the nameless device can produce an image each second, for as long as the lights are turned on.
"We are in the middle of a digital imaging revolution," Nayar, director of the Computer Vision Laboratory at Columbia Engineering, said in a statement. "I think we have just seen the tip of the iceberg."
Nayar found that digital cameras and solar panels basically have the same components: the photodiode.
A camera's image sensor has millions of pixels. "The key enabling device in a pixel is the photodiode, which produces an electric current when exposed to light," the researchers said. "This mechanism enables each pixel to measure the intensity of light falling on it. The same photodiode is also used in solar panels to convert incident light to electric power. The photodiode in a camera pixel is used in the photoconductive mode, while in a solar cell it is used in the photovoltaic model."
The image sensor in Nayar's camera has only 30-by-40 pixels, so the resulting images are currently a bit grainy. The device itself was constructed using off-the-shelf components, while the body was 3D-printed.
"A few different designs for image sensors that can harvest energy have been proposed in the past," Nayar said, adding that his prototype showcases an extreme approach, using just a capacitor to store the harvested energy.
"We believe our results are a significant step forward in developing an entirely new generation of cameras that can function for a very long duration—ideally, forever—without being externally powered," he said.
When not in use, the camera can generate enough power to charge other devices, including a mobile phone or smartwatch.
"Digital imaging is expected to enable many emerging fields including wearable devices, sensor networks, smart environments, personalized medicine, and the Internet of Things," Nayar said. "A camera that can function as an untethered device forever—without any external power supply—would be incredibly useful."
Take a closer look at the self-powered camera's abilities in the University's video above.
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Of course, having enough power to get the images off of the device onto something else might be an issue.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
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