Light-Field Photography: Refocusing After the Shot
Stanford researchers have detailed a method to alter focus after an image is taken. By placing an array of tiny lenses over the CCD, they can track the angles of incoming light rays at every sensor point. This sacrifices some image resolution, but the richer data set allows software to reconstruct the photo with sharp focus at any chosen depth—no hardware changes needed.
The payoff is a wider effective depth of field without adjusting the aperture. Such a camera would let you set focus and depth creatively in post-processing, a capability that remains out of reach for current commercial models.
