Abstract: The physical limit for the number of pixels per color channel per frame in an optical imager is approximately equal to the aperture area in square microns. While this limit is essentially achieved in megapixel scale cell phone cameras, the limit of 100 megapixels for cm apertures, 10 gigapixels for 10 cm apertures and 1 terapixel for meter apertures is far beyond current practice. These pixel counts may be further increased by factors of 100-10,000 in spectral and 3-D imagers. At the physical limit, a practical imager may easily deliver >1 terapixel per second. Imagers that scale to the physical limit must overcome challenges in the design of lenses, electronic focal planes and image processing units. This talk reviews efforts to overcome these challenges through the DARPA AWARE program. We specifically discuss the construction of a compact 5 gigapixel camera and we discuss implications for such cameras in online and broadcast media. Presented Thursday, October 4, 2012.