Google Trends tracks the number of search on different keywords over time. This might be an indication of general public interest in different things. Searches for "image sensor" and related terms seem to be fairly constant over the last 5 years after a peaking in 2004 (marked as 100% on the graphs):
Google Trends on Image Sensors
online engineering degree/engineering degree online/online engineering courses/engineering technology online/engineering courses online/engineering technician degree online/online engineering technology/electronic engineering online