The CCD brings color to underwater operations.
Charged-coupled devices, or CCDs, are integrated, light-sensitive circuits. CCD cameras use a specialized circuit to detect and record pictures. Such cameras take your photo several times as you stand in front of an ATM to take money out of your bank account. Many pocket cameras use the same technology.
What It Is
Charged-coupled devices separate an image into pixel-size electrical charges, based on the intensity of the colors of the image the CCD "sees." The CCD provides detailed color imaging for uses that range from digital photography at a rock concert to underwater photography at extreme depths. Closed-circuit televisions, as well as security devices in private industry and government, also use such technology, and a CCD camera-based system can identify those who commit traffic violations such as speeding by catching them -- photographically -- in the act.
What it Does
The CCD camera functions as a still or movie camera under normal light conditions. With high-intensity auxiliary lights, the CCD camera functions in limited darkness as well. A day-night CCD camera may come equipped with an infrared light source to which the CCD is sensitive, allowing it perceive images at very low light levels. This means, however, that the CCD camera, when operating with IR light only, is effectively blind beyond the range of the IR light source.
Low-light Capability
In a low-light environment, whether 12,300 feet below the Pacific Ocean or along a busy-but-unlit part of a highway, the CCD camera can take photographs or follow the action using a built-in infrared light source. The resulting pictures or streaming media will be black and white, rather than color, when the IR light source is the only light available. Nonetheless, the pictures will clearly display a speeding motorist's license plate or a ship that sank in 1912.
Interpreting Data
The data produced by the CCD camera must be interpreted by a machine, such a computer at state police headquarters, in the control room aboard an oceanographic vehicle or a pocket camera at a concert. The image transfers as a set of electronic impulses to a computer chip that interprets the impulses as pixels at a specific location on the screen.
Tags: light source, camera functions, Charged-coupled devices, infrared light, infrared light source
