TL; DR
- Intel-supported Wooptix and PoLight have developed a camera module and a software kit to bring light field selfies to smartphones.
- You can refocus pictures after taking them or take 3D photos.
- It’s not clear how close this could be to production.
Have you ever taken a selfie and wished you could correct the focus afterwards? Perhaps you will get this opportunity soon, and without having to resort to complex software tricks or bulky camera setups. Intel-backed Wooptix and PoLight have teamed up to develop a selfie camera module and developer kit that could bring Lytro-style light field cameras to smartphones.
Light field photography usually involves either a series of sensors or a single camera with a microlens that can capture numerous “partial images”. However, Wooptix and PoLight have combined a tunable solid-state lens (the TLens) with an algorithm that uses a collection of depth-based images to recreate light field data.
The result is a compact and selfie-friendly light field camera that can perform photo tricks that are difficult even on phones with depth sensor front cameras. You can readjust the focus, for example, by simply tapping an object, but you can also create pseudo 3D images and even change the angle of view. It’s fast enough for you to snap photos like you do with today’s phones, Wooptix said.
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The companies didn’t mention in a press release how close they were to providing a handy light field camera for phones, though PoLight said it could be used for wearables and augmented reality technology as well.
It can take a while. Even after the developer kit is ready, Wooptix and PoLight need to find phone manufacturers willing and able to use their light field camera technology in a shipping product. This is true even assuming the cost is reasonable – brand new technologies usually have a premium until economies of scale improve. However, if the technique is practical enough, you might not have to worry about a best friend being blurry in your group shots.