New 3-D sensors coming soon to computers, cameras, other gadgets
In the science fiction movie “Minority Report,” set 50 years in the future, Tom Cruise’s character interacts with a computer display by moving his hands in front of it.
It won’t take 50 years. Thanks to a promising new kind of image sensor, consumers may be interacting with computers and other devices in the same way in less than five years. Image sensors are the light-sensitive computer chips inside digital cameras. Standard sensors essentially see and record flat, two-dimensional pictures. But a new generation can “see” in three dimensions, recording not only the image, but its distance from the camera. That ability could have far-reaching implications. Among other things, it can allow sensors to track movements through three-dimensional space and to see images as three-dimensional objects.