Image Sensor

What Does Image Sensor Mean?

An image sensor is an electronic device that converts an optical image into an electronic signal. It is used in digital cameras and imaging devices to convert the light received on the camera or imaging device lens into a digital image.

Techopedia Explains Image Sensor

An image sensor is a device used primarily in standalone or embedded digital cameras and imaging devices. Typically, when light strikes the lens of a camera, the image sensor captures that light, converts it into an electronic signal and then transmits it to the camera or imaging device processor, which transforms the electronic signal into a digital image.

There are two main types of image sensors:

Charged coupled device (CCD)
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)

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Margaret Rouse

Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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