DailyDirt: New-Fangled Cameras

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Advances in imaging technology abound these days, and there are some pretty interesting cameras out there. Not too long ago, Lytro introduced a new type of camera that lets users change the focus after the image is captured. It uses an array of microlenses on a digital image sensor to capture all the light fields within the area of the scene. Then, with special software, users can adjust the focal point of the image after it has already been taken. Here are a few more examples of some cool new imaging technologies.

• Bell Labs researchers have developed lensless cameras that use only one or two pixels. The original design uses one pixel to create a normal image. The latest design uses two pixels to either take two different views of a scene, or to create a single high-resolution image in half the time. [url]
• Researchers at Nanyang Technological University have developed an image sensor that will allow cameras to take clear and sharp photos in low lighting conditions. Made of graphene, the sensor is 1,000 times more sensitive to light than imaging sensors found in today's cameras, and it's believed to be the first that can detect broad spectrum light, from visible to mid-infrared. [url]
• MIT researchers have developed a video technology called Eulerian Video Magnification that can detect information that can't be seen by the naked eye. By amplifying the motion in a standard video sequence, they were able to see blood flow pulsing through a person's face by detecting subtle differences in color, which could one day lead to smartphone cameras being able to measure a human pulse via the face or wrist. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: camera gear, cameras, eulerian video magnification, imaging, lensless, photos, pixels, sensors, video
Companies: bell labs, lytro