To see something clearly, sometimes you need to change your perspective. Think out of the box. Turn the problem on its side. When you start to look at things differently, you sometimes start noticing things you couldn't see before.

A lot of times, the real challenge is figuring out just how to get that different perspective. It might be as simple as taking a walk and coming back to the problem when your mind is clear. But often, the best thing to do is to step back, look more broadly, and try to get a "big picture" view of the problem.

Satellites in orbit around the Earth do this all the time - they "step back" by hundreds of miles to provide a unique perspective on our planet. Today, a number of different commercial satellites are in operation around the Earth, each providing information used in applications as diverse as urban planning, mapping for natural resources, or evacuation planning and disaster response.

And that doesn't even count the really cool pictures you can call up on your computer in Google Maps - that really provides a different perspective on things.

Earlier this month, the latest of these commercial satellites - DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 - was successfully launched into Earth orbit. The capabilities of this satellite are pretty spectacular - from 770 km (about 500 miles) above the earth, it can capture images with a resolution of up to 50 cm (about 1.5 feet) over an area almost 1 million square km each day (which is a pretty big number, given that the entire surface of the earth is only around 150 million square km). Its orbit will also allow the satellite to revisit any location on the Earth's surface typically in just over 1 day, allowing for quick, high resolution updates of rapidly changing conditions on the surface.

As you might imagine, the entire process to design and launch a satellite is pretty complicated, involving sub-contractors who each specialize on different parts of the entire project. For the imaging system on WorldView-2 - the "eyes" of the entire satellite - DigitalGlobe worked with the Space Systems Division of ITT Corporation, who designed and built this key component. And when ITT needed custom CCD image sensors for this new imaging system, they came to Kodak.

This isn't the first time Kodak has worked with ITT to design and manufacture CCD image sensors for a commercial imaging satellite - we also worked with ITT on the sensors used in DigitalGlobe's WorldView-1 and QuickBird satellites, as well as the IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellites. But the CCD image sensors used in WorldView-2 give this satellite a unique set of imaging capabilities.

"Normal" color image sensors (like the one used in your digital camera, or in your phone) typically capture images in three different color ranges - red, green, and blue - and then use software to combine them into a single full color image. (Actually, this is very similar to how cone cells work in the retina of the eye.) The CCD image sensors in WorldView-2, however are different - instead of using three colors, they actually capture images across eight different wavelength regions, extending from the visible out into the IR. This extra color information can then be used to more accurately analyze vegetation on the ground, or generate more accurate "true-color" images from the satellite. In fact, this capability makes WorldView-2 unique, as it is the only commercial satellite that provides high resolution images across 8 different wavelength bands.

Less than two weeks after its launch, the first images from WorldView-2 have already been published by DigitalGlobe, as the satellite works through a 90-day initial calibration and check-out period. (If you're interested, you can even watch a replay of the satellite's launch.) After that, WorldView-2 should be fully on-line, providing new views of our planet from its orbit 500 miles above the Earth.

Not a bad place to gain some perspective.

It wasn't too long ago that Kodak announced our latest CCD image sensor targeted to applied imaging markets - the 8-megapixel KODAK KAI-08050 Image Sensor.  This device joined three other KODAK CCD Image Sensors (1-megapixel, 2-megapixel, and 1080p format) in a family of products based on the KODAK TRUESENSE 5.5 micron Interline Transfer CCD Platform - Kodak's eighth generation of Interline Transfer CCD technology.  With four products already a part of this high-performance family, there seemed only one obvious, logical next step to take.

Come out with a fifth.

Make no mistake, the KODAK KAI-04050 Image Sensor fits right in with the rest of the family.  Same new pixel, same improvements in image quality, same increase in frame rate (now at 32 frames per second for this 4-megapixel device).  It even shares the same Region of Interest (ROI) mode available in the 8-megapixel KAI-08050 that allows the center portion of the sensor to be read out at even higher speeds.  But the real news here - other than announcement of the new sensor itself - is how having an integrated portfolio of image sensors allows camera manufacturers to bring new products to their customers more quickly. 

It's been less than 24 months since we announced the first product in this family, and now we have five - all with the same pin-out connections and electrical configurations, and each responding the same way to light.  That makes it easy for camera manufacturers to extend their camera line as each new sensor comes out, because now they can support a full portfolio of cameras using a single camera design.  Essentially, they can just take a single electronics board and plug in any of these five sensors to build a camera - meaning fewer parts in inventory, faster time to market, and better control of costs.

But the real benefit is to customers, because they can start using this new sensor technology - with improvements in frame rate and image quality, and available in the resolution and optical format they need - more quickly.  Customers don't need to wait for manufacturers to design a new camera every time a sensor is announced, since that work was done once for the whole family.  So as Kodak's sensor family has expanded, manufacturers have been able to quickly extend their camera families as well, giving customers the freedom to choose from a full portfolio of products to get the best match for their imaging application.

So with sensor resolutions ranging from 1- to 8-megapixels, now we've got Five Sensors in our Family.  And, no - there's not one of them I'd swap.

When two great people team up, the results can be spectacular.  Fred and Ginger.  Abbott and Costello.  Batman and Robin. 

Or Kodak and Leica.  Over the past several years, Leica has used KODAK CCD Image Sensors in their most advanced digital products - most recently, the LEICA M8 (which brought the legendary Rangefinder family into the digital age) and the new LEICA S2.  World-class products from Leica, all powered by world-class CCD Image Sensors from Kodak.  

And now, there's one more.

Today, Leica unveiled their latest Rangefinder camera - the new Leica M9.  (The M9 on 09/09/09 - get it?)  And just like the M8 camera before it, the M9 is based on a CCD Image Sensor from Kodak - this time, the new KODAK KAF-18500 Image Sensor. 

While the KAF-18500 includes a number of key improvements over the sensor used in the M8 (such as a new red color pigment and new IR-absorbing cover glass to improve color fidelity and overall image quality), one of the big changes in the new sensor is that, well, it's big - as big as a 35mm frame of film.  In fact, it's almost twice the area of the sensor used in the M8 camera.  That means that the new camera can make full use of R-series lenses (which were originally designed for use with 35mm film).

At first, making a "full frame" sensor might not sound like a big deal - Kodak already manufactures several image sensors that are 35mm format or larger (the 50-megapixel KODAK KAF-50100 Image Sensor, for example, is almost twice the size of 35mm film).  But because of the way M-series cameras and lenses are designed, making a 35mm format sensor for the M9 is a little more complicated that you might think. 

One of the hallmarks of Leica's M-series of cameras is that they are very compact, making them comfortable and convenient to handle.  But to be this compact, the camera's lens needs to be very close to the surface of the sensor - a lot closer than it would be in a standard DSLR camera.  And because the lens is so close, light coming out of the lens ends up striking the edge of the sensor at a pretty sharp angle. 

Now for a film camera this isn't a big deal, because film is really good at detecting light that comes in from almost any angle.  But image sensors tend to work best when light comes in "straight" (at a 90 degree angle to the surface of the sensor), so if you're not careful about the overall design, the performance of the camera can degrade around the edges of the sensor if these angles are too steep.  You can correct for some of this with software, but the problem just gets worse as the lens gets closer to the sensor - or as the sensor gets bigger and bigger.  And it's a problem you just can't have if your camera is going to be a Leica.

Since the sensor in the M9 is about twice the area of the one used in the M8, we had to make sure that this larger sensor would work properly with M-series lenses (where the lens is really close to the surface of the sensor).  That meant redesigning both the actual pixel as well as the microlenses used in the KAF-18500 - all without impacting the performance that customers have come to expect when working with an M-series camera.  A tall order, but one that needed to be done - and done properly - in order to help bring M-series photography to a new level.

Left to Right:  KODAK KAF-10500 (in Leica M8), KAF-18500 (in Leica M9), and KAF-37500 (in Leica S2) Image Sensors

In the end, we solved this by using the most powerful resource we have - really smart people who know a lot about image sensor design.  The result is a sensor that really helps Leica's new camera shine - all the way out to the last pixel. 

We're pretty excited to be working again with Leica on the M9 camera - a product that Leica customers have looked forward to with great expectation.  And I can't wait to see the images that photographers will be able to capture using this latest world-class camera from Leica. 

Especially since they will be taken using world-class CCD image sensors from Kodak.

Summer is a great time to spend in the basement on a rainy day, rummaging through all of the things you "know" you need, but don't quite know what to do with.  Despite your best intentions to try to clean up, you know you're still going to hold on to a lot of the things you find, like your high school yearbook, or the clay - something - you got from your kindergartener one year for Father's Day.  For others, you're not quite sure how they got there in the first place.  (Look at that - I did pretty well on my second-grade spelling test.)  But every so often, you come across something that really offers an interesting perspective on the past.

A little while ago, we were going though Kodak's "basement" and found an old trade-show display for our Image Sensor business.  We haven't used this display in about 10 years - when we moved to our new design, we must have put the old one in storage "in case we needed it." 



It's always fun to see how things have changed over time.  Ten years ago, our image sensor portfolio had 21 sensors, while today we have almost twice that number.  "High-resolution" was 16-megapixels (now we're at over 50 for professional photography), and we were proudly working with Kodak's newest "Digital Science" branding.  And while the display was certainly well constructed, it was anything but lightweight (just ask the group of people we needed to help move it out of storage). 



But as you look through the products in the display, you suddenly realize something else.  Of the 21 image sensors shown in the display, two of them - known today as the KAI-0330 and KAI-1010 - are still available for sale (the part numbers have changed slightly, but they are actually the same products).  Another eleven are the direct ancestors of devices we sell today - they have the same pixel size and resolution count, but have incorporated design and process manufacturing changes to improve their performance.  That's over half of the sensors in this ten year old display - all of which can be traced directly to products offered in our CCD portfolio today. 

To really appreciate this, take a minute to think about what was going on ten years ago.  Apple Computer had just released the first iBook and the Power Macintosh G4.  Microsoft was releasing its latest operating system:  Windows 98 Second Edition.  And no one was quite sure just how bad the Millennium bug would really be.  While all of these have come and gone, these image sensors designed by Kodak over 10 years ago are still going strong.



That's not to say that we've been sitting still.  Two-thirds of our current CCD portfolio consists of products launched after this display was retired - new products for photographic, medical, scientific, and industrial imaging.  And we continue to bring out new products based on the latest image sensor technology, like our family of image sensors based on the KODAK TRUESENSE 5.5 micron Interline Transfer CCD Platform.

Memories can be fun, especially on a rainy day (like so may we've had this summer in Rochester).  But what really makes this old trade-show display so special is the planning it represents - not in the visual design of the display, but in the architectural design of the image sensors that are in it.  Designs done over a decade ago that are still current today. 

In the end, this display is about more then just memories.  I think we'll hold on to it just a little while longer.

After a trip of over 200,000 miles, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has sent back its first images from the moon - and they look great. 

Kodak supplied the CCD image sensors used in all three cameras of the orbiter, which will ultimately provide images up to 0.5 meters in resolution - about the same as what's available from commercial programs such as Google Earth.  Currently, the LRO is still in its commissioning orbit, where the equipment is first turned on and adjusted, and the orbit is modified to its final trajectory (which today looks more like an ellipse, rather than a circle, around the moon).  But even while these final adjustments are made, the images coming back are still pretty incredible.

Here's one of the first images sent back by the LRO - taken when the orbiter was flying at the edge of the lighted region of the moon (an area of lunar "sunrise" or "sunset").  Because of this, the shadows are a little exaggerated, but it still gives a good idea of the level of detail available from this new instrument.

[NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]

Since the LRO orbits the moon about once every 2 hours, it's pretty straightforward to image the same location from slightly different angles - making it easy to come up with 3D images of the moon (don't forget to use your 3D glasses):

[NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]

You can even "fly along" with the LRO in movies that have been made from the series of images it has sent back:

But the clear highlight of the first set of images to come back from the LRO are those of the Apollo landing sites, which came just in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.  These show not only the lunar modules and some scientific equipment left on the moon, but even the trails of astronauts' footprints on the lunar surface:

Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle.  Image Width:  282 meters (about 925 ft.) [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

[NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]

It's nice to know that 40 years later, all of these things are right where we left them.

As the orbit stabilizes over the next several weeks, images from the LRO should have two to three times better resolution than the pictures shown here - so future passes over these sites will only produce even sharper images, showing these artifacts in even more detail.  But for now, it's good to know that the cameras on board the LRO are working just as advertised, ready to provide an unprecedented set of close-ups of our nearest neighbor in space. 

As a reminder, there are a lot of different ways you can follow along with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on its mission, including web sites from NASA, the Goddard Space Flight Center, and Arizona State University (where the project team for the cameras is based), as well as accounts on both Facebook and Twitter. 

P.S.  Can't get enough of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter?  Arizona State University has put together a paper model of the LRO you can print up, cut out, and glue together.  Now you've got all the things you need to send your own orbiter to the moon.*

*Launch Rocket not included.

In our own way, each of us is truly a part of history - all of the things we do each day affect the people around us, influencing in some way the course of both our and others' lives.  While all of these things may be important, we also generally understand that some things probably are more important than others - my 8-year-old son may not remember where he left his glasses, but he can recount - with great detail - his plays from little league baseball this summer.  Sometimes, you just know that what you're doing will have a lasting impact - on your family, or an entire community.  Or even the world.  

Art Cosgrove is a Kodak retiree who worked first hand on the Lunar Orbiter program that photographed the moon in the late 60's to search for safe landing locations for the Apollo missions.  Art was part of the Kodak team directly involved in this program, and was there when the first high-resolution images of the moon were received on Earth over 40 years ago.  With last week's anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, I had an opportunity to talk to Art to learn more about the Lunar Orbiters - giving me the chance to have a conversation with someone who really did make history.  


How were you involved in the Lunar Orbiter missions?

To answer that, it probably helps to explain how the Lunar Orbiter sent images of the moon to earth.  It was a three-step process - first, images were captured by the orbiter's camera using film, the film was processed on-board the orbiter, and then the resulting images were scanned and transmitted to earth as a video signal.  Kodak was responsible for the image data received from the orbiters, and provided video engineers to monitor this data as it was received.  I was one of three video engineers working with this data as it was received by one of three Deep Space Network ground receiving stations on Earth - for the first Lunar Orbiter mission, I was at the receiving station in Australia, but also worked at the Spain and California stations for the other Orbiter missions.  


You must have been one of the first people to actually see high-resolution images of the moon's surface - right?

I was - but not in the way you might think.  Remember that the technology then was very different from what is available today - we weren't looking at an image displayed on a monitor, but a raw video signal being sent from the orbiter.  This signal was sent directly to a film recorder, but I would also monitor it on an oscilloscope as it was being received in real time - a flat line was a smooth surface, while "bumps" in the trace corresponded to the edges of craters.  So I could see right away what type of terrain the orbiter was looking at.  After the signal was written to the film recorder, we would process the film and review it before sending it to Rochester - so I saw actual pictures of the moon's surface before almost anyone else, too.  Because I saw these images before they were even sent to NASA, I ended up as one of the first people ever to see an image of the far side of the moon (the side that normally faces away from the Earth). 

How did it feel when you saw the first signals from the first orbiter and knew that knew the entire system was working?

Man, it was exciting!  Really, it's hard to describe the emotions, the pride of knowing that you're involved in this enormous undertaking.  Here I was, a young kid right out of school, now spending 12 - 14 hours a day talking directly to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as these pictures came in.  Knowing that you have a part - a major part - in this, was amazing.  There were certainly other parts of my career where I was excited about the work I was doing, but I never had the level of intensity that I had with this program.  It was a very exciting time in my life, where I was seeing the world, experiencing new cultures - and being a part of this historic undertaking.



Did you appreciate that you were involved in something historic?

Absolutely.  The Lunar Orbiters were considered part of the Apollo program, and everyone understood the importance and significance of that entire effort.  My personal sense was "this is history" - and I was not only living it, but playing a key part in it.

About two years after the last Lunar Orbiter mission, Apollo 11 left the Earth heading for a lunar landing on Tranquility Base - a location that was finalized in a large part based on the information collected by the Lunar Orbiters.  Were you worried about that - did you think that you had collected was good data?

We definitely thought that data from the Orbiters was good.  The images we collected looked pristine, and we had a lot of them.

How important do you think Kodak was in preparing for the Apollo landings?

There really was no one else that could have developed the technology that ended up in the Lunar Orbiters.  Kodak had a lot of unique experience working in systems for aerial reconnaissance (of the Earth), and the Lunar Orbiters were build on the shoulders of that technology.  For example - on an extended space mission, you have to deal with the potential impact of high radiation levels on film.  At that time, no one really knew what those actual effects would be, but Kodak had physicists who had a lot of experience working film, and who were very good at hypothesizing about what would happen in space.  That experience was inside Kodak, and was vital to the successful design of the Orbiter.


What are you doing now?

Keeping very busy!  I retired in early 2006 after over 40 years at Kodak.  During my last years at Kodak, I represented Kodak on several committees defining broadcast standards for digital TV and digital cinema, and I still monitor those activities.  I've also been doing some personal travel - my wife and I have spent the last two winters in Florida Keys, and this past spring we travelled to Iceland and took a cruise on the Baltic Sea.