Optics & Imaging · Recorded milestone
CMOS image sensor
Recorded year1993
Eric Fossum's active-pixel sensor puts cheap cameras in every phone.
Explore this milestone on the interactive mapBuilt on
- Integrated circuitRecorded · 1958requires
- MOSFETRecorded · 1959enables
- CMOS logicRecorded · 1963enables
- CCD image sensorRecorded · 1969enables
Led to
- SmartphoneRecorded · 1994enables
- Camera phoneRecorded · 1999enables
- Camera pillRecorded · 2001enables
- Action cameraRecorded · 2006enables
- Hawk-Eye line callingRecorded · 2006enables
- Interfaces that sense emotionRecorded · 2009enables
- Body-tracking cameraRecorded · 2010enables
- Consumer dronesRecorded · 2010requires
- Retinal implant for the blindRecorded · 2011enables
- Cryo-electron microscopyRecorded · 2013requires
- Smart video doorbellRecorded · 2013enables
- Police body camerasRecorded · 2014requires
- Next-generation weather imagersRecorded · 2015enables
- Sight through sound and touchRecorded · 2015enables
- Computational photographyRecorded · 2016enables
- Whole Earth imaged dailyRecorded · 2017enables
- Burger-flipping robotRecorded · 2018requires
- Sidewalk delivery robotsRecorded · 2018enables
- Robot that carries your bagsRecorded · 2019enables
- Remote school at global scaleRecorded · 2020requires
- AI camera glassesRecorded · 2021enables
- Holographic callsRecorded · 2021requires
- Mixed-reality headsetRecorded · 2022enables
- Mass drone warfareRecorded · 2023requires
- Plant signalling decodedRecorded · 2023enables
- Autonomous drone swarmsRecorded · 2025requires
- Bionic eyeRecorded · 2026enables
- MetalensesForecast · ~2028requires
- Hyperspectral phone camerasForecast · ~2030enables
- The world continuously recordedForecast · ~2035requires
- Lenses that edit what you seeForecast · ~2049requires
Sources & evidence
Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.