Behold! Photography set to be revolutionized!

Lytro, a silicon valley startup, has created the first light-field camera for consumers, that lets users focus at any point of the image LONG AFTER an image has been taken!



An image can be focused either on the camera itself or online.

No more shutter lag! No more blurry subjects! 

Light-field technology is being called the biggest revolution to imaging since 1826, when Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce made the first permanent photograph of a scene from nature!

It is available in the market. An 8GB Lytro camera is worth $399.

Working of the conventional camera

The conventional camera clicks a two-dimensional photograph based on a fixed point of view, a fixed focal length and other fixed settings.

It processes the image based on the total intensity of light rays hitting each point on the image sensor.

Light field photography

Instead of merely recording the intensity of light rays hitting each point of the image sensor, light-field photography measures the intensity AND direction of each incoming ray!

With that information, you can generate not just one but every possible image of whatever is within the camera’s field of view at that moment.

 

Mathematical function

In the language of opticians, the information that the light-field camera records is similar to the plenoptic function.

It is a 5-D function that represents the intensity at every point of space from every direction.

Thus, it requires the 3 standard cartesian coordinates (x, y and z), as well as 2 polar coordinates (θ and φ).

This invention is believed to rock the field of photography and truly revolutionize it!

Image credits : https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/119744#

Further reading