Kodak Working On 5-Megapixel Camera Phone

The line between digital camera and cell phone continues to blur. Last week, Eastman Kodak revealed a working arrangement with Motorola to release a 5-megapixel camera phone near the end of 2007.

The key technology involved in the project is Kodak’s new proprietary CMOS sensor, an element described as “the most important part of the camera.” CMOS sensors are what manage light and color in a given shot, and help render accurate images. The 5-megapixel camera phone has been done before, but Kodak insists the innovation will take camera phone technology to a new level, including the ability to capture video at a rate higher than 30 fps (and in dim light).

As a result, the Kodak-Motorola project looks like it could provide high-end photographic functionality in a cell phone, helping to push stand-alone digital cameras towards obsolescence. Integrated cameras are already the most popular cell phone feature –68% of people polled listed the camera feature as the most important in a Wirefly survey last year – and new technology increasingly position camera phones as the primary picture-taking devices for the average consumer.

In fact, Digital Camera News recently reported that camera phones snapped 9% of all photographs taken – in the world – in 2006, a number that doubled in one calendar year.