The history of cameras and how they see

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Today, cameras are sophisticated, digital, and so small, they can fit inside our pockets or even inside a surgical robot’s arms. Some can even detect light emitted in a spectrum that humans can’t see.

Take a journey through the history of cameras and how they “see” the world, including inside the human body.

1. The camera obscura (5th century BCE–19th century)

The very first camera was a camera obscura, and to make one, all you needed was a darkened box — or a very dark room — with a tiny hole. The setup projected an inverted image onto a surface. No image was recorded.

The camera obscura (5th century BCE–19th century)

2. Early photographic cameras (1820s–1880s)

Cameras evolved in the 1880s with the introduction of heliographs, and later, daguerreotypes. It took many hours of light exposure to create heliographic images.

3. Welcome, film rolls (1888–1930s)

George Eastman introduced the Kodak camera in 1888. Cameras became handheld, simpler to use, and increasingly popular with the public.

4. Smaller and more precise (1920s–1960s)

In the 1920s, 35-millimeter cameras entered the scene. They gained a strong following after World War II, when higher-end, single-lens reflex cameras, or SLRs, were also introduced.

5. Cameras go digital — and then to your pocket (1970s–Present)

Development of the technology that would ultimately become the foundation for modern digital cameras took off in the 1970s. Starting in the 1990s, digital cameras steadily started to replace film. Eventually, they were displaced by smartphone cameras.

6. Cameras in the OR (1980s–Present)

Cameras became widespread in the operating room in the 1980s with the evolution of laparoscopic surgery.

Today, they’re also what let robots “see” the world around them.

Robotic-assisted surgery pairs advanced cameras with sensors and computers.

The hardware behind a robotic vision system typically consists of state-of-the-art cameras, sensors, and computers.

Today, cameras are smaller, digital, and more responsive to light. As a result, there’s been a revolution in resolution. Images have gotten brighter and sharper.

Camera technology has also evolved to detect other frequencies of light on the electromagnetic spectrum.

“With some surgical cameras, you might be able to detect light that is being emitted in a spectrum that is not normally visible to the human eye,” said Dan Stoyanov, one of the top AI experts at Medtronic and a professor at the Royal College of London, where he leads the Robot Vision Scientific Research Group.

“We are going beyond what humans can see, and into a world where vision systems can detect really important information that is incredibly valuable to a surgeon.”