Out of focus images? No more. Adobe unveiled a technology that combines a special lens and software that allow DSLR still images to be focused at any distance in post production.
Out of focus images? No more. Adobe unveiled a technology that combines a special lens and software that allow DSLR still images to be focused at any distance in post production.
[caption id="attachment_7755" align="alignright"]Top: Image as shot with plenoptic technology. Bottom: The same image selecting a focal distance on girl. Image quality is low. Images were taken from a video presentation.[/caption]You've seen Hollywood examples in shows like CSI. The blurry image of the bad guy or the fuzzy car license plate are magically refocused on the lab computer. Bad guy goes to jail.
Now, the technology is reality (not yet available at the consumer level), with an extra lens and shrewd software. It's plenoptic technology, shown by Adobe in late September at Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference. Adobe offered detail abouts about computational photography using plenoptic lenses.
As reported by Engadget, a plenoptic lens, which is inserted between the camera's lens and sensor, is composed of a litany of tiny sub-lenses, which allow images to be recorded from multiple perspectives. The result is increased image and an infinite depth of field, resulting in the ability to select the distance at which the image is focused in post production --after the image is shot. It's a method of taking pictures so that any part of a photo can be brought into focus after the fact.
Commercialization is reportedly still a ways down the road, but now you're ahead of the curve and looking at one facet of the future of photography.