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By ej159
#7708
Have you ever used photoshop and spent ages with the magnetic lasso going round the edge of an image you have taken with your digital camera? A camera could be developed that had some kind of depth sensing device, ultrasound maybe, and it could store this information along with the image. When you want to edit the picture you can split the foreground from the background and make automatic layers.

Reward: A camera for me and a friend
By ElanKeisler
#13064
Most range transducers such as ultrasonic devices would be limited by range, and would require some mechanical method for scanning, which could get quite complex. They also draw a lot of power, loose accuracy relatively quickly, and take some amount of time to capture distance information.

Perhaps an idea that would work is to take two consecutive images, changing the lens zoom a small amount on the second capture. Then software could create a sort of topographic grayscale image that distinguished layers based on the interposition of objects in the two images. For example, focus on an object in front of you, then move your head towards the object a little bit. There will be continuity between 'layers' in the image you see, which could be exploited using existing 'wand' tools that use frequency filtering to select similar regions of an image. I don't know if the idea is good at all, since I am unfamiliar with how image processing really works. Maybe ill play with the idea at school next year.
By Rishi
#13065
Perception of depth is from binocular vision. Earlier days stereo film cameras used to be sold, which produced twin pictures that reproduced full depth. All that may beneeded is to implement this in a digital camera.

rishi
By Rambo-Commando
#14100
this is a clever idea. i agree with the binocular vision. maybe a camera, that also has a mall binocular implanted in it, that when you take your picture, it also records the depth info as you said, and adds it as an extension to the picture file.
By NCoppedge
#23413
Better yet, there could be a camera-scanner that can turn everyday scenes into info-material for a video game. Thus virtual objects for virtualism, which may be selected to be especially personal to the individuals, etc.

This hooks up with preference scanning, and preference-based movies, which use non-invasive electrodes.
By ErwinVervacke
#23415
ej159 wrote:... and it could store this information along with the image.
Check out the "Light Field Camera" by Lytro. It captures depth without fixing a specific depth of field. Their software allows you to load the image and play around with the lens settings to focus om the fore- or background after the picture has been taken. Pretty neat and about time!

I suppose the layering split can be done this way - maybe their software allows for it or you could request it as a feature (and still get a camera :-) )

PS: being a new user, I cannot add a direct link but it is www [dot] lytro [dot] com
By JadeSilver
#23438
The Canon Digital Cameras have had a feature that provides automatic depth of field to ensure that images over a wide depth of field are all in focus. This is called 'A-Dep' and is one of the options that can be selected using the dial.

What it does is simply reducing the aperture to increase the depth of field. It does not, as someone wrote in an earlier post, write focussing data into the digital image so it can be retrieved later. As any photographer knows, reducing the aperture increases the depth of field, which can then be checked using the preview button. But this has the disadvantage of reducing the shutter speed (to permit enough light to pass through) to make up for the reduced amount of light.

But it works very well, as the many focussing ponts illuminate in the viewfinder screen when the option is used, confirming that focus has been achieved.
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