War Stories: Color House Tales

The word “digital” evokes an idea of mathematically precise ones and zeroes. But actually, a digital imaging chip isn’t very digital at all—it’s mostly an electronic sensor that uses physical effects to try to read light intensity. As a physical sensor, its accuracy is dramatically influenced by a variety of forces. One of these is the background current that it generates internally (if you cover the lens of a digital camera and take a picture, the resulting shot will be a vague haze).