NASA already interested in light field cameras.

[JWhiskey]

Hi everyone. My first post to this forum.

After seeing a program about the Lytro light field camera, I came here to ask how long it would take NASA and other space agencies to start using this technology in their missions.

After doing a quick search of Lytro though I found that JPL is already interested in incorporating the technology.

I had never heard of the light field camera before seeing this program but I find it fascinating although I'm probably behind the curve compared to most folks here..

For any unaware of the concept, the camera captures each individual light ray and allows for focusing on any part of the image after the picture has been taken. You can also do a slight perspective shift of the image.

https://pictures.lytro.com/LytroIceland/pictures/891906

My first thought is imagine two of these camera being used for a stereo image...

[cjameshuff]

One of the major advantages of the technology is that you can achieve the benefits of stereo vision with a single camera. Parallax is limited by the aperture, but taking the right subsets of sensor sites gets you the same result as two standard cameras.

The basic technology goes back a century (aperture/lenslet arrays have been used for some time to measure light paths in optical systems such as telescopes), it's just that we now have the computational capabilities and sensor resolution to make use of it to generate images in digital cameras.

[darren r]

https://pictures.lytro.com/LytroIceland/pictures/891906

Impressive stuff. I'd like one of those cameras. It'd be nice to never take an out-of-focus photo again!

And welcome to the forum, JWhiskey!

[JWhiskey]

One of the major advantages of the technology is that you can achieve the benefits of stereo vision with a single camera. Parallax is limited by the aperture, but taking the right subsets of sensor sites gets you the same result as two standard cameras.

That makes sense.

I also just realized I never linked the article I was referencing:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2471749,00.asp

[cjameshuff]

I do hope they decide to be reasonable with licensing their patents. Last I looked into it, they'd taken an extremely proprietary and locked-down approach with their own product which basically put them in control of everything you did with it. No robot vision or 3D scanner hacks for the Lytro.