Hey friends, Happy Wednesday!
Last week, I hosted a board game night and dinner at my place for the first time with a couple of my friends on Ramzan. Eid Mubarak!
I’m including an extended summary of how a gadget works in my newsletter, from which you can understand the essence in less than 3 minutes. But you can choose to read the blog posts for a more detailed version involving the nuances, from the links I attach.
Let’s look at how an Instant Camera works this week. I aim to write my newsletter issues in a way one can follow them while traveling on a bus, having a coffee, waiting for your food, etc. Let's jump in!
I’m sharing a cool fact about gadgets every day on Twitter. And here is one of them for you
April 20th 2023
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Firstly, what is an Instant Camera?
Basically, once you click a picture, a blank-white photo film pops out from a slot (Figure 1. Left). And, it takes a few seconds to generate an image of what you clicked (Figure 1. Right) right away! Let’s see how this magic happens!
Simplified Physics of Image Generation
The stack of 10 photo films (Figure 2. Left) is bunched together in a box and placed inside the rectangular slot (Figure 2. Right) of the Instant Camera. The final image is generated on the individual photo films and each of them has all the components & chemicals needed for instant photo generation.
When we click a picture using Instant Camera, the outside natural light from the scene we aim at enters the camera lens for a brief period. This light chemically reacts with the sensitive silver-halide crystals packed together very closely on the individual film. The crystals absorb photons, coming through the lens. Different colors like blue, red, yellow, etc. naturally have different wavelengths. Different wavelengths have different energy so they react differently with the film. Thus, a record of the light is left. Later when the ink is spread over this film, the final image is generated after a chemical reaction.
Motors, Gears, and Roller mechanisms to apply Ink and process
Figure 3 is the side view of an Instant camera with the photo coming out from the top and the lens on the right. I have only shown the internal components in this drawing, to better explain the mechanism without confusion.
How do you think a Smartphone camera works? Let’s look at this next week! Reply with your thoughts, and would love to have a discussion with you.
My blog post S2E7 exploring Instant camera is out! It has additional photos, videos and a more detailed explanation. So I would highly recommend reading the blog post to get a complete understanding of the same. Happy learning!
Learn How Instant Camera works! |
Also, by replying to this email, let me know if you’d like to read about a specific gadget/device. And I can write about it.
Generally, I share software or a hardware gadget/app every week that’s new in the market. But once in a while, I’m sharing products I use. So here we go. This is my daily calendar that has a positive quote every day.
Thank you for reading!
Have a nice rest of the week, and take care!
Until next Wednesday,
Chendur
Understand the inner science, tech, and AI of your gadgets with me, a Carnegie Mellon alumnus. Join 205+ readers every other Wednesday to see the world differently in just 3 minutes—regardless of your background! 🚀
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