Matchbox Camera

This matchbox sized camera is based on a DCA1 chip that runs firmware I wrote, with some hardware I contributed to design of around the microcontroller and USB interface.  I wrote some of the software for the image sensor's exposure control too, designed the instruction set and architecture for the special purpose exposure control processor, and wrote the assembler/linker used to build software for it.  

Most of my work was done on much larger development boards, and the first time I saw this really neat form factor was when they gave me this as a leaving gift from the company.

The lens was a new miniature prototype which lacked an IR filter in the stack, so you can see a small rectangle of filter glass glued to the front of it.  Later developments of this lens went into the first mobile phone cameras the company did for Nokia.

Cameras this small are commonplace today, but when the team made this twenty three years ago it seemed unimaginable that a camera this small was possible.

I found it the other day when sorting some old things out in the house.