When not open-source is okay: Basically hardware. Say you're trying to create scientific image proc for an an off-the-shelf smartphone. The following review of

When not open-source is okay: Basically hardware. Say you're trying to create scientific image proc for an an off-the-shelf smartphone. The following review of the 40MP android nokia shows the debate. http://www.cnet.com/news/the-secret-behind-nokias-41-megapixel-camera-phone/ http://www.cnet.com/news/the-secret-behind-nokias-41-megapix... The key point takeaway for me is how you create cheap consumer level electronics with a research team behind it. (Hint - Nokia's investment in R&D depends on them expecting to get lots customers) Con: There is contention that this order of magnitude increase in pixels is not useful to image quality. And proprietary algo's on embdeded hardware in the camera module (7px "sampling" -> 1px "stored") is not available. Pro: In some cases, there is contention that this innovative smartphone camera increases signal to noise ratio, so maybe we live with the black-box of the hardware to get better images downstream. And if "gimmicks" like this huge camera sensor sell units, we can expect more cheaply available units for mass deployment of the hardware/software. -> Thus for hacking we're riding the wave of mass adoption of what we're once esoteric technologies - high-end digital image sensors.