Pixel Packing

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories use this display to visualize highly complex computer simulations - like that of nuclear weapon explosions.  A new collaboration plans to improve on this technology, by developing a photographic system capable of capturing and displaying a billion pixels of visual information in a single image.

The project involves both scientists and artists, who met last month at New York University for the first Big Picture Summit.  Photographer Clifford Ross has been the major impetus behind the meeting.    

"In the early 15th century, the impulse to render flesh more realistically drove the artist Jan van Eyck to invent oil paint," Ross said. "The same sort of impulse is driving me, except that I'm trying to capture a mountain. Pixels are simply 21st century oil paint."

Ross recently patented the R1 camera system, which broke through the gigapixel, or billion pixel, barrier.  To build on this achievement, he has elicited the help of computer scientists.

This eclectic partnership plans to first design and build a new camera that can capture a gigapixel of digital information in 1/15^th of a second or faster.

The next step is to display the image - something Ross compares to building an "electronic Sistine ceiling" - with 16 times greater detail than the system shown above.

-- LiveScience Staff

Credit: Sandia National Laboratories