Lytro

Another article from Makeuseof: Lytro Light Field Camera: Snap Happy Or Photo Gimmick?

Described by an employee as “the first major change in photography since photography was invented”, the Lytro light-field camera is certainly a revolutionary device. The camera shakes things up by replacing much of the heavy and sensitive technology in your typical camera with software. Whether or not it’s worth your hard earned money at this stage is still unclear, however. Even the earliest of early adopters might want to think twice about the Lytro, despite the amazing technology and interactive results that are possible.

A typical camera measures the intensity and colour of light of a scene, be it captured on a roll of film or the sharpest digital sensor. Once you’ve taken your snap, Photoshop aside, there’s very little you can do to change the point of focus on a static image. That’s where Lytro differs. By capturing the direction light is moving and then reconstructing this along with color and intensity, Lytro allows you to change your point of focus once the image has been captured. This is called light field technology, and it’s bound to revolutionise the way we take photos.

Writing own obit

From a column about digital cameras, in Makeuseof: In 1975 the first digital camera came to be after an engineer for Eastman Kodak was tasked with creating what was then dubbed an “electronic camera”. The ensuing breakthrough laid the building blocks for digital photography as we know it today.

A Kodak engineeris responsible for the death of Kodak as a company.

Criminalizing photography

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/criminalizing-photography/

A tiny little bat

NIR ELIAS / REUTERS

Israeli researcher Noam Tzvikel holds a bat in a laboratory at Tel Aviv University during an examination of the changes in the its nose structure, which reflect the focus, direction and width of its sonar beam, July 23, 2012. Israeli researchers aim to reveal the secrets of bats to shed more light on the behaviour and cognition of the species. They hope their findings could pave the way for new and improved radar systems and robotic technologies. Picture taken July 23, 2012.

From Reading at lunchtime