Definition of camera obscura Camera obscura
cam•er•a ob•scu•ra
We found 6 definitions of camera obscura from 4 different sources.
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What does camera obscura mean?
WordNet
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| camera obscura - a darkened enclosure in which images of outside objects are projected through a small aperture or lens onto a facing surface |
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Wiktionary 
Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘
- camera obscura
An apparatus in which the images of external objects, formed by a convex lens or a concave mirror, are thrown on a paper or other white surface placed in the focus of the lens or mirror within a darkened chamber, or box, so that the outlines may be traced. - camera obscura
An apparatus in which the image of an external object or objects is, by means of lenses, thrown upon a sensitized plate or surface placed at the back of an extensible darkened box or chamber variously modified; -- commonly called simply the camera.
Wikipedia 
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The camera obscura (Lat. "dark chamber") was an optical device that helped the invention of photography. In English, today's photographic devices are still known as "cameras".
The principle of the camera obscura can be demonstrated with a rudimentary type, just a box (which may be room-size) with a hole in one side, (see pinhole camera for construction details). Light from only one part of a scene will pass through the hole and strike a specific part of the back wall. (The projection can be made on paper on which an artist can copy the image.)
With this simple do-it-yourself apparatus, the image is always upside-down. By using mirrors, as in the 18th century overhead version, it is also possible to project an up-side-up image.
As a pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper, but the light-sensitivity decreases.
Discovery and origins.
The first mention and discovery of the principles behind the pinhole camera, a precursor to the camera obscura, belong to Mozi (470 BC to 390 BC), a Chinese philosopher and founder of Mohism. Further down the line, Aristotle (384 to 322 BC) understood the optical principle of the pinhole camera. He viewed the crescent shape of a partially eclipsed sun projected on the ground through the holes in a sieve, and the gaps between leaves of a plane tree.
The first camera obscura was later built by an Iraqi scientist named Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, born in Basra (965-1039 AD), known in the West as "Alhacen" or "Alhazen", who carried out prac -
disambiguation
Camera obscura means "darkened chamber" to describe early devices for projecting an image on a screen, by use of a lens or a pinhole.
