Specialty digital cameras that can offer more than 1 gigapixel of resolution have been discussed for a few years, and Microsoft is the latest to explore such technology.

Microsoft has filed a patent to develop a digital camera that can shoot with 1.4 gigapixels of resolution. (One gigapixel is equal to 1 billion pixels.) Microsoft says this type of camera, called a large-format digital camera, would be used in virtual museums or for digital preservation of art. Astronomers could find a use for this type of large-format camera as well.

Today’s consumer-level digital cameras tend to offer 10 megapixels to 16 megapixels of resolution, although 24-megapixel advanced cameras will be sold to consumers this holiday season. (One megapixel is equal to 1 million pixels.) That’s still more than 50 times less resolution than the Microsoft camera would offer.

Creating large digital images using today’s technology usually requires scanning large-format film images. This can be time consuming. Large digital images sometimes also are created by moving a digital camera and shooting multiple photos quickly. The images then will be stitched together. However, the images are created at different times, reducing image quality.

Microsoft certainly isn’t the first manufacturer to create plans for a digital camera that exceeds 1 gigapixel in resolution (equal to 1,000 megapixels), but it could be the most well-known company involved. A couple years ago, MIT engineers worked with the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii to develop plans for a 1.4 gigapixel camera that would connect to a telescope to hunt for asteroids on a potential collision course with Earth and to find faint stars.

Additionally, Fermilab announced plans a couple years ago for a 570-megapixel camera that will search space for dark matter. Each Fermilab camera uses 74 CCD (charge-coupled device) image sensors, and each photo requires 17 seconds to record. CCD sensors are commonly used in today’s consumer-level digital cameras.

In the Microsoft design, the large-format camera would combine 4,096 CCD image sensors. Each CCD would have a resolution of only 0.34 megapixels, but by combining all of the images, the camera will be able to achieve the 1.4 gigapixel resolution. The primary reason for using thousands of small CCDs is that data from the small image sensors can be read and combined more quickly than data from larger image sensors. Each CCD can record its image at the same time, improving image quality.

The Microsoft large-format camera might include a video camera with a larger field of view than the 1.4 gigapixel still-image camera. The video image could be used to help put together the images from the CCDs.

With so many CCDs inside the camera, heat generation is a primary concern for the Microsoft camera. To counteract all of the heat, the Microsoft patent includes plans to include a thermoelectric device inside the camera that can keep the image sensors cool. Think of it like the fan and cooling system inside your desktop computer case, which moves the ambient air over computer chips to attempt to cool them.

The process of combining the 4,000-plus images requires that each image have a slight overlap, thereby assuring no gaps between the small images that could affect the overall large image. To combine the images, Microsoft apparently will include a second camera inside the 1.4 gigapixel camera.

Seeing Microsoft join the world of digital camera manufacturing is a bit of a surprise. Microsoft is primarily a software company, and it has not been involved in hardware manufacturing and design very often in its long history. Outside of a few computer mice and keyboards, perhaps Microsoft’s biggest success in terms of hardware is the Xbox gaming system — and much of that system’s success comes from its strong online gaming capabilities.

Still, having the push of a company as powerful and wealthy as Microsoft behind this high-resolution camera should give it a leg up on other large-format camera makers.

Don’t expect to see a Microsoft 1.4 gigapixel camera suddenly on the shelf at your local retailer, next to a Canon EOS Rebel or a Nikon D5100-type camera that offers 12 megapixels of resolution. If and when the Microsoft camera is actually manufactured, it will be a specialty model. After all, you probably don’t need 1.4 gigapixels to shoot pictures at the family reunion. In fact, unless you’re making poster-sized prints, anything over 10 or 12 megapixels is overkill for most amateur photographers.

Still, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft makes use of this design. There seems to be little chance of this type of technology ending up in the hands of the average consumer, but the same thing probably was said about the personal computer 35 years ago. Any company that can keep dominating the market, despite the various buggy versions of Windows over the years, can do just about anything.