Cheap Phone Sensors Can Be Cool

If youve ever tried capturing a fast-moving object on your phones camera, you might have noticed it doesnt look quite right. The reason is that most consumer smartphone cameras utilize CMOS sensors, which capture images in a line-by-line sequence (AKA a rolling shutter) as opposed to a more expensive CCD image sensor which captures all the action at once (AKA a global shutter). When capturing a still image, there isnt much of a discernable difference. But if something is moving quickly, the picture may appear warped as the object(s) may have moved by the time the next line has rendered, thus causing warping (sometimes known as jellocam).