November 21st, 2005
Focus later
Posted by
Ben in
Imaging
According to this Wired News article a Stanford University graduate student has invented a prototype camera that allows users to take photos and choose how to focus the image later. Ren Ng calls his creation the “light field camera” and it uses about 90,000 micro lenses between the main lens and sensor, which measure all the incoming light AND its direction of origin. The software later adds up the rays, according to how one chooses the focus. Apparently it is based on work in the 1990s on something called a plenoptic camera. Some more info and videos showing the “refocusing” here and here. So no excuses anymore.
