Pan-Tilt Camera Built with Single RGB Sensor

Consider color sensors. Hold an item up to one and it tells the color. Move the sensor in either direction and it’ll give you new values. In theory, if you were to move it the X/Y direction and record the results, you could generate an image — albeit very slowly — in the same way that multiple sensors combine in an instant to capture many millions of pixels in modern cameras.

As spotted on Reddit, illustrating this concept is Tucker Shannon’s “DIY Camera (Potato Resolution).” As the name implies, its low “kilopixel” resolution won’t be competing with the latest DSLR, or even camera phones circa 2005. It is, however, a clever bit of mechatronics, using a pair of stepper motors to rotate the sensor from inside to out of its field of view in a “square spiral,” storing color information as a series of pixels. An Arduino Uno is used for control of the unit, and as an added bonus it very much looks like a defensive turret that could be at home in any number of video games or sci-fi movies.

Limitations aside, the images are good enough to signify a team mascot or even the Mona Lisa if you know what you’re looking for. Shannon even notes that a similar setup could be done with a photoresistor if you want to save a few bucks, or would rather record in native black and white. Code is available on GitHub, and print files are on Thingiverse if you’d like to examine the project further!