Scientists develop a camera that's 'the size of a grain of salt'!

Check out how small this camera is balanced on someone's finger!

Scientists in the United States have developed a tiny camera that they say is "the size of a coarse grain of salt".

This new camera can produce clear, full-colour images that are as good as ones taken with camera lenses that are 500,000 times bigger in size.

While scientists have developed tiny cameras before, the pictures they have taken have been blurry and the quality of the images hasn't been very good.

Traditionally, cameras rely on a number of curved pieces of glass or plastic known as 'lenses' to keep images clear which limits how small cameras can be, however this one uses different technology to get around this - meaning the camera is tiny AND takes clear pictures!

These pictures shows the difference in image quality of the same flower taken by an older tiny camera (on the left) compared with this new tiny camera (on the right)

The secret to this new camera is that the surface contains 1.6 million cylinder shaped 'posts' which each use artificial intelligence and light to turn what they detect into an image.

The team at Princetown University and the University of Washington in America which developed the device, are now working to add more features to the camera itself - such as giving it the ability to detect objects.

Scientists are really excited by this new camera and think it could make a big difference to future technology.

The camera could be used to help doctors take better images of the human body to help diagnose and treat diseases.

It could also be used to make better quality camera phones.

Felix Heide, who helped develop the camera said, "You wouldn't need three cameras on the back of your phone anymore, but the whole back of your phone would become one giant camera.

"We can think of completely different ways to build devices in the future," he added.

What do you think of this tiny camera? Let us know in the comments below..