Forensic Dentistry, Second Edition

Forensic dental photography 217

CMOS refers to both a particular style of digital circuitry design and the

family of processes used to implement that circuitry on the associated elec-

tronic chips. CMOS circuitry dissipates less power and is denser than other

implementations having the same functionality. As this advantage has grown

and become more important, CMOS processes and variants have come to

dominate, such that the majority of modern integrated circuit manufactur-

ing is on CMOS processes.

Once the digital image is captured on the sensor, the digital camera’s

chip set applies the appropriate processing steps to create and save the image.

These steps are usually directed by the photographer when choosing the

camera settings before the image is photographed. Digital cameras can save

the images in a number of file formats, each of which has advantages and

Silicon Color Absorption

Silicon Water

Foveon X3 Sensor Stack

≈ 7 Microns

Blue

Absorption

Full S pectrum

Blue Sensor

Green Sensor

Red Sensor <5 Microns

<

Red

<Absorption

Green

<Absorption

Figure 11.15 Foveon X3 Cmos sensor, method of capture and creation of a
color digital image. (see color insert following page 304.)

Figure 11.16 illustration of the six-sided double-photodiode digital CCd sensor

from Fuji. this sensor uses a different pixel shape and layout as opposed to the

traditional Bayer patterned sensor. the two channels of the six-sided pixel create a

sharper and smoother image that can be enlarged with less distortion (pixilation).

(see at http://www.dpreview.com/news/0608/6080904fujifilms3prouvir.asp.)