Communications of the ACM
Seeing Depth Through a Single Lens
Researchers have developed a program that computes how an image would look if it were taken from a different angle, based on the clues encoded within the rays of light entering the camera.
Credit: Eliza Grinnell/Harvard SEAS
Harvard University researchers have developed a method for photographers to create a three-dimensional (3D) image through a single lens, without moving the camera.
The researchers developed a program to compute how the image would look if it were taken from a different angle based on the clues encoded within the rays of light entering the camera.
"Cameras have been developed with all kinds of new hardware--microlens arrays and absorbing masks--that can record the direction of the light, and that allows you to do some very interesting things, such as take a picture and focus it later, or change the perspective view," says Harvard professor Kenneth B. Crozier.
He notes the key to the technology is to infer the angle of the light at each pixel, rather than directly measuring it.
The researchers took two images from the same camera position but focused at different depths, and calculated the differences between the two images, which enabled the program to create a new image as if the camera had been moved to one side.
The researchers say the technique also offers a way for biologists to create 3D images of translucent materials.
From Harvard University
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