Start-up Lytro tries refocusing camera industry (http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20073206-264/start-up-lytro-tries-refocusing-camera-industry/?tag=mncol;txt)

A start-up called Lytro hopes to revolutionize photography by selling a camera later this year that lets people focus their images after the fact.

The technique used is called light-field photography, and it's been an active area of research for years in the optics realm. With it, lens and image sensor technology doesn't focus on a particular subject, but instead gathers light information from different directions; processing after the fact means different aspects of the scene can be recreated.

Lytro has been working on the technology for years--I interviewed Chief Executive Ren Ng three years ago when his start-up was called Refocus Imaging, and he began his research at Stanford well before that. But yesterday the company announced it plans to actually sell its first camera this year...


http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/06/22/si04_610x303.png%3F1308717973

i was just about to post the same thing :

Start-Up Lytro Aims to Sharpen Focus of Entire Camera Industry - Ina Fried - News - AllThingsD (http://allthingsd.com/20110621/meet-the-stealthy-start-up-that-aims-to-sharpen-focus-of-entire-camera-industry/)

i doubt that it would be for professional use in the near future since it seems it uses many tiny lenses to get it's results....so a single quality lens would probably yield better image quality than many cheap ones.

Just thinking that this would completely change surveillance photos.

I know, it's stills instead of moving pictures, but...

No reason why it can't move into the video realm though, a video is just a bunch of stills in sequence ... as long as they can capture fast enough. It's a very interesting approach to take ... but them making proprietary cameras is kind of an interesting first move. Their demos are interesting to play with but obviously they are setup shots for the technique to work well with them for demonstration purposes. I'd be interested to see a larger shot and how well it works across what kind of depth of field ... and for that matter if we can adjust the depth of field itself too allow for more or less of the image in sharp focus.

Data/storage ramifications?

Until it hits the streets who knows.

After reading that article I'm still trying to wrap my head around what it is that it is doing. It seems that the original image is trying to be in focus throughout but you are introducing your own focus point(s) at a later date so makes me wonder what kind of camera this is going to be. Fixed focus perhaps with large DOF?

Will be interesting to see once it's in the market.

Just thinking that this would completely change surveillance photos.

Maybe henceforth when someone on Law & Order or CSI asks a tech to zoom in on a really blurry reflection in a far-away window and we get to see a nice sharp picture, it might actually be possible :)

Cheers

PUN INTENDED: Actually, it's an anachronistic pun. There's no chemical development in photography any more, and the we tend to 'process' rather than develop pictures.

PUN INTENDED: Actually, it's an anachronistic pun. There's no chemical development in photography any more, and the we tend to 'process' rather than develop pictures.

Well actually there still is if you are using film, which is still in use, as for the rest of your post I think knew that already.... :rolleyes:

I wonder if it has any relation to this article from Pop Sci (http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-05/cameras-40000-lenses-help-salvage-blurry-images) and if so well beyond my price range (start at $30K)

You can view and play around with these images HERE. (http://www.lytro.com/) Plus get more info.

You can view and play around with these images HERE. (http://www.lytro.com/) Plus get more info.

Very cool demo... this really could be a game changer.

You can view and play around with these images HERE. (http://www.lytro.com/) Plus get more info.

This is very interesting. I guess that photos would be printable with all elements in focus, mimicking our visual experience wherein foveal vision appears to be (almost) always sharp.

Photographically, this would eliminate all the depth-of-field processing (either automatic or manual).