If successfully developed, it could turn separate video and still cameras into technological relics. At present single frames of a piece of video footage can be ''grabbed'', but the quality is always poor. The new technology allows one camera to do the jobs of both video and still photography with equal ease. It works by effectively turning small groups of light-sensitive ''pixels'' into tiny individual cameras that take a sequence of pictures at high speed. The pixel groups are evenly distributed, and the whole of one sequence lasts as long as it takes to take a ''normal'' snapshot.

The user then has two choices. Either all the ''mini-pictures'' captured by the pixel groups can be displayed together as one high-resolution image, or they can be ''played'' one after the other as a movie. Researchers who tested the concept believe it could have a multitude of applications in industry, science, security systems, the media and the consumer market. Plans are already under way to compress the technology into an all-in-one sensor that could fit inside normal cameras.

The invention was the brainchild of Dr Gil Bub, an imaging expert belonging to a group studying heart cells at Oxford University. Dr Peter Kohl, of the VPH NoE who leads the Cardiac Mechano-Electric Feedback Group at Oxford, said: ''Anyone who has ever tried to take photographs or video of a high-speed scene, like football or motor racing, even with a fairly decent digital SLR, will know that it's very difficult to get a sharp image because the movement causes blurring.

''We have the same problem in science, where we may miss really vital information like very rapid changes in intensity of light from fluorescent molecules that tell us about what is happening inside a cell. Having a massive 10 or 12 megapixel sensor, as many cameras now do, does absolutely nothing to improve this situation. ''Dr Gil Bub from my team then came up with a really great idea to bring together high-resolution still images and high-speed video footage, at the same time and on the same camera chip - the real motion picture.

The sort of cameras researchers would normally need to get similar high-speed footage can set you back tens of thousands of pounds, but Dr Bub's invention does so at a fraction of this cost. ''This will be a great tool for us and the rest of the research community and could also be used in a number of other ways that are useful to industry and consumers.'' For more details go to the full article in the The Telegraph 15/02/2010.