Apple Patent Reveals Lytro-like Camera Plans

We’re sure you guys have heard of the Lytro camera which for those unfamiliar, is a rather unique camera in the sense that you could shoot your photos first and focus on specific portions of the photo later. This allowed photographers to capture images in the moment without having to worry about fiddling with focus and finding that sweet spot. Such a camera would be interesting especially if brought to mobile devices, especially when mobile devices are used heavily in taking photos these days since we have them on us all the time.

Well it looks like Apple could be interested in something similar as the Cupertino company has recently filed for a patent for a plenoptic camera, which is essentially similar technology found inside the Lytro camera. According to the patent, Apple’s take will include an adapter holding a microlens array used to take low resolution refocusable images, where users will be able to choose their point of focus in the software later.

While it remains to see if this technology ever makes its way into future Apple products, it is not completely out of the question as Lytro’s founder, Ren Ng, revealed that Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs, had called him over to discuss what both companies could do together. Apart from Apple, we have also heard the rumors that Nokia might be interested in something similar which could debut in their 2014 smartphones, and that Toshiba has developed a similar type of sensor as well. Exciting times are definitely ahead of us!

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Photo-Video
Tags: lytro, Patent