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Very nice. But it leaves me wondering about a couple of things: (1) Given the info captured by the camera, can we, without further human input, create an image

Very nice. But it leaves me wondering about a couple of things: (1) Given the info captured by the camera, can we, without further human input, create an image in which everything is in focus? (2) What the heck are these people thinking? Going into the camera business? That means that, in order to get my hands on this technology, I am stuck with whatever zillions of other design decisions they made. One product. No competition. No multiple companies trying different ways to integrate this idea into a product. And if this company goes belly-up, then the good ol' patent laws mean that the tech is just gone for more than a decade. <sigh> Please license this. P.S. FTA: > Once images are captured, they can be posted to Facebook and shared via any modern Web browser, including mobile devices such as the iPhone. Surely there must be a more straightforward, but still understandable to non-techies, way to say "the result is an ordinary image file".

shadowpwner 15y ago
This technology has been around in research articles for at least 15 years. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=light+field+photography&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0 http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=light+field+ph...
- pgbovine 15y ago
  true, but that's usually the amount of time it takes for many research technologies to come to fruition as products.
  - shadowpwner 15y ago
    Apologies if I wasn't clear, I was referring to the above poster's comment about this technology being patented.
thijsterlouw 15y ago
The image quality seems a bit low (low contrast/greyish, lots of grain), but the concept is very cool. I also see lots of artifacts (horizontal lines) in several of the demo images: http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery
mechanical_fish 15y ago
A. Yes, I'd imagine so, within reason. Makes for a less interesting demo, though - we've seen lots of images with large focal depth, and lots of images with a narrower depth of focus used to call out one thing, but we've never seen snapshots which you can refocus after they are taken. This is seriously awesome. B. This tech isn't going anywhere. If the camera succeeds they might license it. If the camera fails they will surely try to license it. Note also that the technique is apparently not wholly new so the key patents are already running down. And your point about all those design choices that go into the camera cuts both ways. If they license this tech to a consumer electronics company that flubs the execution they will lose money, as the lousy execution will reflect badly on the tech and will prevent it from getting popular sooner. (The sooner every camera buyer wants this tech, the more profits there will be before the patents expire.) In a world consisting mainly of (a) Apple and (b) hardware companies that cannot design software to save their lives, keeping control of your own fate seems wise. The popularity of this technique among the general public will presumably depend crucially on the UI, both when taking the photo and when displaying it. Better to screw that up yourself than outsource the screwing up to someone else. ;)
andrewflnr 15y ago
Re (1), the guy in the video gives a couple demonstrations of focusing everything in an image. It seems reasonable to assume it could be automated, if that's what you're asking. And for what it's worth, the just-one-design thing has worked out pretty well for Apple.
wisty 15y ago
(1) - cameras already do this. Photography 101 - if you use a small apature, everything is in focus (minus diffraction and motion blur). Cheap lenses (like most cellphones) have low apertures, and don't really need to focus. Expensive lenses (like the iPhone 4 lens) often have high apertures, which let you take faster photos, and artistically blur stuff. Photographers don't like to do this, as blurring the background draws your attention to the subject.
- TeMPOraL 15y ago
  > Cheap lenses (like most cellphones) have low apertures, and don't really need to focus. Some companies seem to follow this idea and then, surprise surprise, barcode scanning app doesn't really work on my phone because someone decided not to install AF with the camera :/.
juiceandjuice 15y ago
You can have your car in any color you would like, as long as it's black.
liuliu 15y ago
(1). if my memory serves, they can do this by taking one pixel from each len and compose them into a total focus image.

shadowpwner 15y ago

This technology has been around in research articles for at least 15 years. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=light+field+photography&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=&as_vis=0 http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=light+field+ph...

pgbovine 15y ago
true, but that's usually the amount of time it takes for many research technologies to come to fruition as products.
- shadowpwner 15y ago
  Apologies if I wasn't clear, I was referring to the above poster's comment about this technology being patented.

thijsterlouw 15y ago

The image quality seems a bit low (low contrast/greyish, lots of grain), but the concept is very cool. I also see lots of artifacts (horizontal lines) in several of the demo images: http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery

mechanical_fish 15y ago

A. Yes, I'd imagine so, within reason. Makes for a less interesting demo, though - we've seen lots of images with large focal depth, and lots of images with a narrower depth of focus used to call out one thing, but we've never seen snapshots which you can refocus after they are taken. This is seriously awesome. B. This tech isn't going anywhere. If the camera succeeds they might license it. If the camera fails they will surely try to license it. Note also that the technique is apparently not wholly new so the key patents are already running down. And your point about all those design choices that go into the camera cuts both ways. If they license this tech to a consumer electronics company that flubs the execution they will lose money, as the lousy execution will reflect badly on the tech and will prevent it from getting popular sooner. (The sooner every camera buyer wants this tech, the more profits there will be before the patents expire.) In a world consisting mainly of (a) Apple and (b) hardware companies that cannot design software to save their lives, keeping control of your own fate seems wise. The popularity of this technique among the general public will presumably depend crucially on the UI, both when taking the photo and when displaying it. Better to screw that up yourself than outsource the screwing up to someone else. ;)

andrewflnr 15y ago

Re (1), the guy in the video gives a couple demonstrations of focusing everything in an image. It seems reasonable to assume it could be automated, if that's what you're asking. And for what it's worth, the just-one-design thing has worked out pretty well for Apple.

wisty 15y ago

(1) - cameras already do this. Photography 101 - if you use a small apature, everything is in focus (minus diffraction and motion blur). Cheap lenses (like most cellphones) have low apertures, and don't really need to focus. Expensive lenses (like the iPhone 4 lens) often have high apertures, which let you take faster photos, and artistically blur stuff. Photographers don't like to do this, as blurring the background draws your attention to the subject.

TeMPOraL 15y ago
> Cheap lenses (like most cellphones) have low apertures, and don't really need to focus. Some companies seem to follow this idea and then, surprise surprise, barcode scanning app doesn't really work on my phone because someone decided not to install AF with the camera :/.

juiceandjuice 15y ago

You can have your car in any color you would like, as long as it's black.

liuliu 15y ago

(1). if my memory serves, they can do this by taking one pixel from each len and compose them into a total focus image.