If you think the digitized camera image has progressed about as far as it can go, and can’t be improved, then the Flat Earth Society may be calling you.

Word from Scotland is that Glasgow University scientists are working on ways to improve the digital image by manipulating tiny particles.

Yeah, I know. Stay with me here.

They hope to create sharper and more colorful microchips for digital cameras and other imaging equipment by taking advantage of a phenomenon called plasmon resonance—the interaction produced when light waves fall on a metal surface.

Researchers say that when this happens to metal sensors in digital cameras—say CMOS, for example—these detected light waves are converted into digital signals. (CMOS stands for Complementary Metal-oxide Semiconductor.)

When light shines on the metal film, electrons on the surface absorb the energy of the light waves and begin oscillating—shaking—in groups. The resultant combined waves are called plasmons, which modify the light distribution around the metal.

The CMOS then measures the light and assigns it a digital value, which is used to build up a bigger picture.

Better, Sharper Digital Lens?

The university team, headed by Professor David Cummings and Dr. Tim Drysdale, hopes to create small nanostructures or patterns in the metal film on the CMOS. This in turn will increase the sensitivity of the sensor and result in higher-quality images. “A nanostructure is an object of intermediate size between molecular and microscopic—micrometer-sized—structures.”

Cummings said the researchers will use the university’s extensive nanotechnology expertise to manipulate particles on the nanoscale, which involves taking advantage of the properties of electrons to create a whole new optical effect.

He added, “digital imaging has come a long way in recent years and this project aims to further improve the ability of digital devices to produce high-quality pictures. This technology has a wide range of potential applications in cameras, televisions, spectrometers and medical sensors.”

The project is being funded through a grant from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, and is supported by Sharp Laboratories Europe and Oxford University.

The research is expected to last to mid-2012.