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New 3D camera chip design might put Adobe on guard


You'd better watch your back Adobe, because it looks like you've got company in the 3D picture game. Stanford University researchers have recently hit upon a method of image sensing which can judge the distance of subjects within a shot. By using a 3-megapixel sensor which is broken into multiple, overlapping 16 x 16-pixel squares (referred to as subarrays), a camera is capable of capturing a variety of angles in one frame. When the images taken by the multi-aperture device are processed by proprietary software, location differences are measured from each mini-lens, and then combined into a photograph containing a depth map. This procedure allows the same image to appear at different angles, provided the subject has depth to begin with (i.e., isn't a flat surface). Here's hoping this technology makes it into consumer products pronto, ASAP, and forthwith.

[Via Wired]