Lytro and PTM/RTIs

[Dennis Piechota]

The new light field camera, Lytro, that allows refocusing AFTER the shot has been taken apparently uses onboard software that interprets surfaces normals.  It would be great to have relightable AND refocusable RTIs and PTMs but I don't imagine its proprietary formula (.lfp) will work well with RTI Builder!

See this for a quick commentary on the camera:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/digitalcameras/lytro-begins-shipping-light-field-camerajust-an-expensive-toy/5634?tag=nl.e539

And this earlier more informative article:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/digitalcameras/lytro-light-field-camera-lets-you-focus-after-taking-your-shot/5328?tag=content;siu-container

Dennis Piechota

Fiske Center for Archaeological Research
UMass Boston
Office: 617-287-6829

XRF Group Admin

pXRF for Cultural Heritage

RTI Group Admin

RTI_help

"The best way to learn is to teach." Frank Oppenheimer

[Taylor]

Hi Dennis,

I had the same thoughts about capturing PTMs and RTIs with plenoptic cameras when I heard about the Lytro, and I had a little discussion with folks at CHI about it.  The proprietary software in the Lytro limits its application, unfortunately.

Marc Levoy at Stanford, with students and collaborators, is developing a Linux-based, open architecture, programmable camera for computational photography they call the "Frankencamera."  It's not pretty, but it appears it could possibly be developed into a plenoptic camera that could be programmed to take PTMs and RTIs.  My understanding is that plenoptic sensors are currently limited in resolution, but I'm sure they will improve.  More information about the camera is here:
https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/camera-2.0/

Best,
Taylor Bennett