Tiny camera, big picture
A shot of the moon taken by Tiny1
A team from NUS has developed Tiny1, the world's first compact camera capable of capturing sharp pictures of celestial bodies.
Tiny1, which lives up to its name, delivers powerful software packed in a pocket-sized frame. Its sensors detect extremely dim light within a short exposure time of about 30 seconds, allowing users to take pictures of stellar bodies such as the Milky Way and the Northern Lights. In addition, Tiny1 uses cutting-edge technology to process the captured images in half the time needed by traditional cameras. Tiny1's user-friendly Point-To-The-Stars feature provides updated constellation charts and a live preview to help users locate the celestial objects they wish to shoot. Regular updates on celestial events, such as super moons and meteor showers, enhance the camera's usability.
The developers of Tiny1 ' Mr Grey Tan, Chief Executive Officer; Mr Ashprit Singh Arora, Chief Operating Officer; and Chia Lih Wei, Chief Technology Officer ' founded TinyMOS in early 2014. Mr Tan and Mr Arora, both recent NUS graduates, met when they were taking the New Product Development module, and came up with the concept and business case for TinyMOS. Final year Engineering student Lih Wei, who had been classmates in secondary school with Mr Tan, and in his words, "had been doing a lot of technical ‘nonsense' together during and since, fleshed out the technical aspects.
After more than six months, during which they utilised work spaces offered by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, the team developed the first prototype for Tiny1, which came in two parts ' the sensor demonstrator and the software demonstrator. The former captures images while the software demonstrator works off a tethered computer, in lieu of the actual hardware.
To enable smooth camera operation, the team needed to blend sensor performance, signal processing performance and data bandwidth seamlessly. "Getting all of them working together flawlessly is not something that current technologies and chipset/sensor manufacturers are comfortable with…We were lucky to eventually find the right people to support us, Lih Wei said.
The pre-production model of Tiny1
Tiny1 is currently the company's sole product, but other products are in the pipeline. "For now, we are creating products that make astrophotography accessible, and the products that go along with it. Eventually we want to move on to cameras that do other things current cameras cannot, said Lih Wei.
To date, TinyMOS has raised approximately $200,000 from angel investors and also received a $250,000 proof-of-concept grant from SPRING Singapore. Later this year, the company intends to launch a campaign on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding site which allows project owners to raise funds.
