TECH SPECIAL..3D Effects with Mobile Phone Cameras

New Tech  3D Effects with Mobile Phone Cameras

2 MIT geeks ready with tech which converts phone cameras to DSLRs

The next wedding photograph you shoot can be in 3D and that too, on an ordinary mobile phone camera. Instead of a static line of friends and relatives posing, a three-dimensional view of the scene can be captured and sent to friends over Facebook or Flickr. The 3D effect on your smartphone brings in a dash of the excitement and emotion thrown in along with the photographs.
And in case you want to focus on a favourite aunt in the picture, it can be done at a later date. Again, with the help of a technology built-in in your mobile cameras. While Samsung made a big bang announcement a couple of days ago on their latest Galaxy Camera which combines features of a smartphone with those in latest cameras, here is a camera design which does exactly the reverse.
Two Indian researchers, Kshitij Marwah and Ramesh Raskar – both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- are ready with a technology which can provide developers a platform to integrate features found in digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras in their smartphones.
Marwah, who is in Bangalore to introduce this technology to the R&D heads of the world’s biggest mobile phone-makers, says: “We have developed a new camera design called Light Field Camera technology that can be fitted inside a cellphone camera to capture the bundle of light rays coming from the scene, giving users the ability to capture single-shot 3D photos.”
The practical applications of such a technology would include creating 3D content for delivery services like YouTube just using your cellphone. It would also allow smartphone users to have the ability to create DSLR-type photos and moreover with features such as control of focus post-capture.
Such technology inside the mobile phone camera throws open many exciting features which are almost impossible on current 2D cameras. New applications are something which mobile phone makers are always scouting for. Says Prasun Kumar (marketing head), Sony Mobile Communications: “India is one of the fastest growing mobile phone markets in the world. Given the love for mobile devices, players in the market have to be innovative to keep up with consumer expectations. We see a sharp increase in multimedia apps and features in the recent past.”
Marwah and Raskar have brought in their research on Light Field Camera technology to address this challenging market. “Since this light field based technology can capture a tremendous amount of visual information it can be used to detect gestural inputs to the mobile phone and in other applications such as tracking a user’s eyes. When the gaze drifts away, this camera can sense and enable functions such as dimming the screen of the mobile phone,” explains Marwah. This gesture-based eye-tracking is seen in Samsung Galaxy S III. Light Field Camera technology is nothing new to 3D experts like Amit Gupta, COO of Ntology. During his stint with Prime Focus (which handles post-production film work), he supervised the 3D visual effects for films like Avatar and Chronicles of Narnia. “Creating depth in photographs is an amazing technology. But it can never replace the zoom lens and effects that an optical lens can offer,” he says. “This may be an excellent technologyenabler but you can never replace lenses in a mobile phone the way you can do in a normal camera. Light Field Camera tech captures 3D details using a single camera/lens. Any other 3D camera needs two or more cameras shooting simultaneously,” he explains. “It is optics versus technology,” he says.
    In fact, a number of Photoshop tricks can be integrated with the help of Marwah’s camera technology. “For example, if you shoot a photo where a dog is the focus, you can shift the focus to a tree in the background, at a later date. This is possible because the space of incoming light rays are saved with the help of this new patented camera design and can then be reused to allow such effects,” explains Marwah. These are features found in cameras made by Lytro but can now be realised in the mobile form factor. The distinction here is that this technology can be added to traditional 2D cameras at virtually no cost with slight modifications to existing designs. Marwah, showed this reporter how he could take a mobile phone camera and change it to a mobile light field camera by modifying it with his thin patented optical element. Amit Gupta of Ntology has the last word: “This is a new art form and will develop over time as a stream in itself.

NEENU ABRAHAM BANGALORE ET120903