We don’t often run iPhone rumors here, because that’s the entire rest of the Internet’s job. We’ll stick to other stuff, but sometimes we make an exception, and this would be one of them.
If you haven’t heard of the Lytro, a short explanation: Your basic camera captures all the light coming in one direction. The Lytro captures light from all directions, in something called the “light field.” Well, more like “it mathematically determines the light field,” but it’s a pretty involved piece of optics. Their official site has test images up. Why does this matter? Well, just for starters, it lets you tweak the focus in real time; click on a portion of the image and it comes into focus.
In the future, this technology could be used to change the perspective on a picture, or create 3D images from a 2D photograph.
Oh, and Apple wants to install it on the iPhone. Considering the iPhone is the camera of choice for millions, this would pretty much mean a complete change in how we use photography to document our lives. Also fewer crappy photos. And maybe FINALLY Apple would start selling more iPhones.
See, we save the awesome rumors just for you.
(Image via CNet)