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.

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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.

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