Start-Up’s Camera Allows Photos to Be Refocused

[By DON CLARK, Wall Street Journal]

A Silicon Valley start-up is expected on Wednesday to unveil plans to sell a new kind of still camera which generates an image that can be refocused by viewers after its creation.

The closely held company, Lytro Inc., says its technology will offer consumers an array of benefits—including all but eliminating focus problems in taking pictures and allowing users to generate 3-D images with one rather than two cameras.

Lytro’s approach springs from Stanford University research into what are often called light-field cameras, which capture much more information to create an image than conventional digital cameras. While scientists have discussed the underlying concept for a century, most previous experiments have required as many as a hundred cameras and heavy-duty computing power.

In 2006, Lytro CEO Ren Ng wrote a doctoral dissertation at Stanford about ways to dramatically reduce the size and cost of the technology. Lytro isn’t disclosing details before releasing its first cameras later this year, but Mr. Ng says their pricing will be competitive with today’s consumer cameras.

Selling standalone cameras would seem an uphill battle these days, now that picture-taking capability is a built-in feature of even low-priced cellphones. Cisco Systems Inc.’s recent decision to close its Flip video-camera unit was largely blamed by analysts on the fact that many smartphones can now shoot high-definition video.

A key difference, Mr. Ng said, is that the images taken using a Flip or other video cameras looked the same to most viewers. Not so with Lytro’s technology, he said. “These pictures are unprecedented,” he said.

Photos taken by prototype Lytro cameras, when viewed through most current Web browsers, allow users to click on different parts of an image to bring different subjects into focus.

Lytro lists other benefits. For one thing, since images are focused after the fact, users don’t have to spend time focusing before shooting. Nor do they have to worry if they wound up focusing on the wrong thing.

The technology works in very low light without a flash, Lytro said, while 3-D glasses can add a particularly vivid effect—simulated three-dimensional images that users can adjust to show different perspectives.

Conventional digital cameras essentially record the total sum of light rays from a scene as they hit an image sensor, Mr. Ng said. A light-field camera records the color, intensity and direction of rays individually. He compared the approach to audio recording; instead of recording multiple musicians all at once, modern multitrack studios record them separately so that the volume and other effects can be independently adjusted after the fact to create a sound mix.

A key to Lytro’s strategy is to use the increasing resolution found in the image sensors in conventional digital cameras, capability that Mr. Ng said most amateur photographers don’t fully exploit.The company developed a special array of lenses that fits in front of image sensors and helps break the image apart into individual rays, along with software to help reassemble aand manipulate it.

Lytro, founded in 2006, has attracted $50 million in funding from venture-capital firms. that include Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates and K9 Ventures. Leading its technology team are Kurt Akeley, formerly of Silicon Graphics Inc., and Adam Fineberg, formerly chief architect for the WebOS software developed by Palm Inc., which is now part of Hewlett-Packard Co.

Lytro won’t lack for competition, predicted Winston Hendrickson, vice president of products for software maker Adobe Systems Inc., which has developed prototype light field cameras for research purposes. Besides the technology departments of big camera companies, other startups are pursuing related technology, he said. One is Pellican Imaging Corp., which in February announced a prototype of what it calls an array camera for use in mobile devices.

“I think that there is broad agreement that light field will be the future,” Mr. Hendrickson said. “What people have different points of view about is when that will happen.”

See the original post here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304070104576400053004293050.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

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Camera Start-Up Lytro Promises to Revolutionize Photography

By Jared Newman, PCWorld

With a new kind of camera, Lytro wants to remove the headaches of focus from digital photography.

Lytro, a start-up based in the Silicon Valley, hopes to revolutionize the camera industry by bringing “light field” cameras to the market this year. This type of photography captures the color, intensity and direction of individual light rays, allowing the user to refocus the picture even after it has been taken.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Lytro’s founder and chief executive, Ran Ng, likened the technology to a multitrack audio recording, in which each instrument is recorded separately and mixed later.

A blog post on Lytro demonstrates the concept with an interactive photo. Clicking anywhere on the picture changes the point of focus, causing other parts of the scene to blur into the background. Apicture gallery shows more examples.

Lytro also claims that its cameras work in low lighting without flash, and can produce 3D photos with a single lens.

“We have something special here,” Ng wrote. “Our mission is to change photography forever, making conventional cameras a thing of the past.”

It’s a lofty goal, especially at a time when smartphones are already jeopardizing conventional digital cameras. But if Lytro’s first cameras really are better and more convenient, they may pose a threat to high-end digital cameras and DSLRs. That will depend largely on pricing and portability; we’ll see what Lytro comes up with later this year.

See the original post here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/230867/camera_startup_lytro_promises_to_revolutionize_photography.html

[by Broadcast Engineering]

Pictorvision’s eclipse 3-D aerial system was recently used onboard a helicopter with a pair of RED ONE M-X cameras for a Deutsche Telecom series of commercials called “A Thousand Little Things.” Directed by Paul WS Anderson, the spots were shot in Berlin and Los Angeles by director of photography Vern Nobles. Nobles said the eclipse performed better at holding the 3-D camera package steady than anything he has used before.

“There is too much mass to use physical gyro systems, and other systems can’t look straight down,” he said. “We needed to shoot as slow as 1fps for time-lapse ramping, and no other system was stable enough to do it.”

Nobles’ helicopter setup included Pictorvision’s eclipse and a pair of RED ONE cameras with M-X sensors and Angenieux 17-80mm zooms. The Deutsche Telecom spots are being shown both in theaters as well as on TV in Europe.

See the original post here: http://broadcastengineering.com/products/deutsche-telecom-uses-pictorvision-technology-3-d-aerial-spots-20110510/index.html

[Press Release]

3D VISION, INC., presented its new 3D Camera to the Film Industry.  3D Vision recently presented their innovative 3D camera to some of the toughest critics in the film industry, the members of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). The demonstration was held at the Hollywood, California offices of Mole-Richardson, a well known Hollywood staple in film rental equipment since the 1920s.  Members of the ASC included Directors of Photography (DPs), camera operators and techs, cinematographers and individuals associated with A-Grade movie production.  3D Vision’s camera was set up in a make shift set on the Mole Richardson sound stage and the ASC members and others were given the opportunity to try different aspects of the camera while putting it through the most common and uncommon (for 3D) paces including pan, tilt, zoom while moving the camera through different floor positions.

Richard Crudo, Past President of the American Society of Cinematographers had this to say: “3D Vision is on exactly the right track.  Their new camera is a reasonable size; it’s robust and doesn’t require a boatload of support gear and personnel to make it run.  Just take it out of the case, plug it in and you’re ready to go in no time at all.  In this sense, it’s helping to put control of the image back where it belongs – in the hands of the cinematographer.  There’s great reason to be excited about where they’re going with this technology and I look forward to their next announcement.”

Director of Photography, Bill Bennett, ASC, stated, “We’ve been waiting for years for an all-in-one professional 3D camera. This is what the industry really needs.”

“This is the audience we wanted to reach, the real users of the technology who can give you an honest opinion of this product, make recommendations that eventually will make this the 3D camera of choice in exploding 3D production market.  We value their opinions and we’ll continue to seek their input as we progress,” said Cliff Hall, President of 3D Vision, Inc.

Cliff Hall went on to say, “3D Vision’s future looks extremely positive and prosperous.  With this, we at 3D Vision are honored and excited to have been announced in the CEO’s Letter on the website www.envirotechenergy.com , as the first dividend in the new Ramoil Management, soon to be Enviro|Tech Capital, business model.  We look forward to growing our company and shareholder value together.”

See the original post here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ramoil-management-ltd-otcramo-3d-vision-inc-introduces-its-innovative-3d-camera-to-the-film-industry-121558378.html

[by Stephen Shankland, CNET]

The camera market might be dominated by giants such as Canon and Panasonic, but a small start-up founded by a surfer in Half Moon Bay, Calif., has persuaded venture capitalists to invest.

GoPro, maker of the diminutive Hero line of cameras geared to record action video of snowboarding, base jumping, mountain biking, scuba diving, and car racing, announced the funding today. The “substantial strategic investment” of undisclosed magnitude is from Riverwood Capital, Steamboat Ventures, Sageview Capital, Walden International, and U.S. Venture Partners.

The company has found a niche for its products–including a range of accessories such as suction cups, chest harnesses, helmet straps, handlebar clamps, and adhesive brackets to mount the cameras. Most recently, it released a camera housing that fits two cameras side by side for shooting 3D video and acquired CineForm, a video encoding company whose software GoPro supplies to process the 3D videos.

GoPro also announced a major distribution deal: Best Buy will carry its products.

The cameras are basic–fisheye lenses that don’t need to be focused, automatic exposure, one button to start and stop video and another to cycle through settings. A bubble-shaped plastic lens is designed to be replaced if you scratch it during your parachute landing. Though they’re basic, they’ll shoot HD video for people who don’t have a spare hand to hold a camera.

Among the prices: The HD Hero 960 camera costs $180 with a waterproof housing that works down to 180 feet deep and shoots 720p and 960p video. The HD Hero shoots 1080p, and with a helmet mount included, costs $300. The 3D housing costs another $100 but also is waterproof.

See the original story here:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20060071-264.html?tag=mncol;1n

[by Stereoscopynews.com]

You need test patterns to align your 3D rig ? Check Beale Corner Production’s test patterns. Belaer Corner in based in Mountain View, CA, USA and is specialised in wedding videos. They use their own test patterns to align the RED cameras.

The “High Resolution Test Patterns for testing imaging systems” page is here on Beale Corner Production’s web site. You will find the ISO1223 Chart, the EIA-1956 chart, and several others in very high resolution.

See the original post here:  http://stereoscopynews.com/hotnews/hotnews-1/hotnews-2/1493-test-patterns-free-to-download.html

[Christian Zibreg, 9to5mac.com]

Don’t hold you breath for a glasses-free 3D screen on the next iPhone, it would be very unlike-Apple to go with the tech many folks suspect is just a fad. If you’re a fan of 3D imagery, this nifty app will have you covered.

Panorama4D by OWLAB is a photography app that lets you take stereoscopic 3D images with your phone even though your device has a “dumb” 2D camera. Plus, you can slightly rotate around your subject on images bullet-time style by tilting your device. How does it work?

Simple, really. You just extend your arms and rotate to the left side until you hit the marker. The app will begin recording the video as you rotate to the opposite direction and stop when another marker is hit.

It will then analyze and align the individual frames to generate ten stereoscopic images of the subject at different angles.

There’s lot of number crunching involved in this step and if the app crashes due to fragmented memory, closing the running tasks and restarting the device will help.

When you’re ready to marvel your work in three dimensions, put on your anaglyphs glasses, choose 3D mode and enjoy. You can even chose the type of stereoscopic glasses in the app’s settings, go for a grayscale mode or enjoy your images in old school 2D. What sold me was the gyroscope 4D mode that rotates the view around your subject depending on how you tilt your device. This bullet-time-like effect is cool and provides a believable illusion of depth, but it takes a lot of practice to capture nice 4D shots and you may not be entirely satisfied with the results. Stereoscopic images look much better, but also require perfectly aligned shots.

Other features include Facebook, Twitter and email sharing, face detection that helps keep people in frame, auto flash, resolution presets (480-by-320 and 960-by-640) and cool CoverFlow-like image gallery. Available for two bucks in the App Store, Panorama 4D works on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, fourth-generation iPod Touch and iPad 2.

See the original post with many more pictures here:  http://www.9to5mac.com/62215/panorama-4d-turns-your-iphone-into-a-3d-camera-with-bullet-time-gyro-mode/

[Philip Lelyveld comment: 3D image is constructed that feeds into a 3D printer!]

[by Max Eddy, www.geekosystem.com]

Georgia Tech researcher Grant Schindler has come up with a pretty clever use for the iPhone 4: Use it to create 3D models. It’s a simple process that proves that while there are over 350,000 apps, there’s still plenty of new ideas for the iPhone platform.

Schindler’s app, called Trimensional, works by shining light on a person’s face from four directions, and recording the results. These are compiled into a single image that users of the advanced version of the software can export to a 3D printer and create a model of their face, or whatever they scanned. Cleverly, Trimensional does not require any additional equipment to perform the scan, such as a light kit. Instead, it uses the iPhone’s screen as a light source, and records the images with the front-facing camera.

Schindler describes the scanning process as answering a series of questions. From the Georgia Tech Digital Lounge:

If I take a scan of my face, the app asks ‘what does the image look like if I shine the light from the left side, what does it look like from the right side,’ and so on. There’s one three-dimensional answer per pixel, and combining all those answers results in the full 3-D model[.]

See the original post here: http://www.geekosystem.com/trimensional-scanner-iphone/

[By George Wong, Ubergizmo.com]

The Sony Bloggie 3D camera that was unveiled at CES, and then put up for pre-order a few weeks later is now available for purchase online. The consumer-level camera introduces 3D video recording and image capture to users who are looking to dip their toes into the 3D image market without wanting to fork out tons of cash for a high-end 3D camera.

The handy little camera can shoot 3D videos at 1080p and take 3D still shots at 5 megapixels. Its Exmor- CMOS sensor ensures beautiful pictures even in low light conditions and has the ability to capture photos while you’re shooting a video at the same time. It even packs a 2.4″ glasses-free 3D screen so you can preview your masterpieces on the spot. The Sony Bloggie 3D has 8GB of internal storage for you to record up to 4 hours of footage and HDMI output lets you share your videos and images on the big screen.

The Sony Bloggie 3D is available now on Amazon for $249.99.

See the original post here: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/04/sony-bloggie-3d-camera-available-now/

See the original post here:  http://www.tvbeurope.com/newsletter-3dmasters-content/full/arri-alexa-in-the-picture-for-avatar-2

[by StereoscopyNews.com]

3D recording with a single Pro camera is now possible thanks to the ZEPAR 65-Z3D lens put in front of the Phantom camera and its 4K sensor.  Recording is done in full dual-Full HD side-by-side.

Interocular distance is adjustable from 24 to 26 mm, a sligthly limited range, however….

The solution offers an ultra-lightweight camera+optics module for hand held, Steadicam and B camera companion.

Read the detailed technical explainations in the AbelCine web site (1.5 Mb pdf document with nice pictures).

See the original post here: http://stereoscopynews.com/hotnews/hotnews-1/hotnews-2/1457-phantom-65-z3d-system.html