Lytro Camera Gets Parallax mode, 3D Display Support
Lytro's lightfield camera has always been more of a novelty than a real product, albeit one with a lot of potential. Now Lytro has updated its camera's software to bring some truly impressive advances to it, some which might eventually change how 3D movies are shot. Lytro's camera now captures and displays in 3D.
Lytro's camera seems like magic when you first hear about it. Changing the focal point of any image just boggles the mind. And yet, as Lytro's first product has shown, the technology exists at a price point reachable by average consumers.
But as interesting as changing the focus of an image is, light-field cameras have bigger and better things saved up for the future. See, to be able to shift the focal point, the camera has to take in a lot of different light samples. Basically, focusing on the entire range at the same time, and writing that to a file. Which means all the data necessary to render a scene is in the file. All you have to do is pull it out and render it.
Light-field cameras like this would capture 3D scenes in a remarkably different way from traditional 3D cameras. The scenes captured would be truly 3D, capable of rendering any angle in what it has captured. When future 3D display technologies come out that show more than a static image, this will be very, very important.
Again, at this time Lytro's product is still more of a demonstration than a compelling piece of tech in its own right. But as their research progresses, we should see their technology show up in far more interesting places.
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