Panasonic Light Field sensor Patent No. 20140078259. Light Field forum coloured the most important elements.
Imagine a MIcro Four Thirds camera with a sensor capable of taking full sharp pictures and where focus points and bokeh will be determined in post production. Imagine a MFT Panasonic camera that can take pictures in a way where you can change the perspective(!) in postprocessing too. As most of you will know such a technique already exists and is used by [shoplink 45611 ebay]Lytro cameras (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. They allow you to do this: CLick on the image to refocus and drag to change the perspective:
The current issues with [shoplink 45611 ebay]Lytro cameras[/shoplink] is that the resolution is very low. As Light Field Forum reports right now the maximum effective image resolution of 25 % the sensor’s resolution. Well the good news is that Panasonic latest Patent No. 20140078259 shows how Panasonic solved that problem. They created a technique to achieve 100%(!) of the sensor resolution by moving the lens array below the Pixel layer.
Light Field Forum writes:
In contrast to today’s microlens setups, the microlens array in this system lies behind the photosensitive layer. Thus, light rays first reach the imaging layer (1d in the figure below) and create a standard 2D image. They then pass through the microlens array (1a) and another layer which can be controlled to let light pass through or block it (1b). If allowed to pass through, they finally reach a reflective layer (1c) and are transmitted back to the photosensitive layer (1d) as a microlens-coded image.
By finely tuned control of layer 1b (transmitted light controlling layer), the camera can record both a full-resolution 2D image and a 4D light field image in rapid succession, collecting all the information necessary to reconstruct a full-resolution light field.
The authors note that the presented system is compatible with “every camera that uses a solid-state image sensor”, including “digital cameras, digital camcorders and other electronic cameras”.
I would love to have a Micro Four Thirds camera with such a unique sensor! And you?
Found via Dicahub and Image Sensor World.