This animation is part of the CD-ROM 'Microworlds' and it explains how a CCD chip works. If digital pictures are greatly enlarged, it becomes recognisable that they are made up of individual pictorial elements. These are called pixels. In recording pictures, each pixel is equivalent to a single photosensitive cell on the CCD chip of a digital camera. The chip transforms the optical image projected on its surface into an electrical charge pattern. The transformation of light into electrical signals takes place via the so-called photoelectric effect.