Tech Shout!

Cameras that we use and own today have one main lens, producing just a 2D photograph, whereas a camera with two lenses can take 3D photos. But, imagine what a camera with thousands of tiny lenses would be able to produce. You would get an electronic “depth map” containing the distance from this 3D camera to every object in the picture.

Now, researchers at Stanford University are developing such a camera, one which would create a sort of a super 3D effect. This camera is being built around a 3 mega pixel unit with a total of 2,229,696 sensors each measuring 0.7 microns.

The group of researchers led by Professor Abbas El Gamal, plan to integrate a tiny lens on each array of 16×16 pixels (256 pixels) which would then result in a total of 12,616 lenses.

Basically, if you had to point such a 3D camera at someone’s face, it would not only take a photo of that person, but also record the distances to the subject’s eyes, nose ears, chin and such like.

“It’s like having a lot of cameras on a single chip,” said Keith Fife, a graduate student working with El Gamal.

The group of researchers believes their multi-aperture sensor has some key advantages. For starters, it’s small and doesn’t require lasers, bulky camera gear, multiple photos or complex calibration. And it has excellent color quality. Each of the 256 pixels in a specific array detects the same color.

The sensor also can take advantage of smaller pixels in a way that an ordinary digital camera cannot, because camera lenses are nearing the optical limit of the smallest spot they can resolve. Using a pixel smaller than that spot will not produce a better photo. But with the multi-aperture sensor, smaller pixels produce even more depth information, explained Gamal.

This amazing technology is expected to produce a photo in which almost everything, whether it is near or far, is in proper focus. But, it must be noted that it would also be possible to selectively defocus parts of the photo with the use of editing software on a computer.

One of the many uses of this 3D camera is facial recognition for security purposes. But, it could be used for many other purposes including biological imaging, 2D printing, and creation of 3D objects or people to inhabit virtual world as well as 3D modeling of buildings.

Interestingly, the researchers currently working on this 3D digital camera say that it may cost less than existing digital camera.