Challenge for improving image quality of a digital still camera

Digital still cameras are getting popular not only in the professional market but also in the consumer market. In recent years, the number of pixels employed in consumer digital still cameras is increasing dramatically, resulting in that over a half of the digital still cameras currently used in the market have over 2 mega pixels. As the number of pixels increases, the ability to depict fine details is improved steadily. Although the resolution is one of the important factors of image quality, current consumer digital cameras seem to have adequate pixels if the resultant image is to be displayed on a monitor or to be printed in small size. In this paper, first we review some important aspects to improve image quality of consumer digital still cameras. Then we propose our new conceptual CCD, which enables capture of a wider dynamic range. The new technology to realize a wider dynamic is introduced and new algorithm to utilize such dynamic range is described also.