Alright, the Lytro light field camera technology is pretty impressive and emergent all by itself (it will be shipping in about a month), but I can't help wondering what's next: what about video? Eric Cheng, the Director of Photography at Lytro, was surprisingly forthcoming. Without promising any products in the pipeline, he described the exact technical requirements, and the exact technical feasibility. What's really interesting, and was helpful in me actually understanding how Lytro works, is that it's like a 3D rendering engine in reverse. Instead of tracking a point of light from an object to a virtual camera, Lytro takes the information it has from its sensor on a multitude of light rays and extrapolates the scene from that. Outside of video, and the existing focus-shifting technology (which we demonstrated on our very first On The Verge), the applications for Lytro's technology are pretty much limitless, and I'm excited to see where it goes next.
Lytro's Eric Cheng on a video Lytro: 'there's no reason we can't'
Lytro's Eric Cheng on a video Lytro: 'there's no reason we can't'
/Paul Miller interviews Eric Cheng, Lytro's Director of Photography.
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