Lytro demo at AsiaD / AllThingsD

Posted on by Eric Cheng

On October 20, 2011, Charles Chi (Lytro’s Executive Chairman) and I went on stage with technology columnist Walt Mossberg at AsiaD in Hong Kong to give a live demonstration of the newly-announced Lytro camera. During the on-stage demo, I snapped a living picture of Walt Mossberg holding a Lytro camera, imported it into our desktop application, and shared it to the web:

We also demonstrated parallax shifts and 3D. We don’t currently show those features online, but I put together an animated image so you can see what our camera can do.

The full video of our tech demo can be found at AllThingsD.

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  • Chiangkai Er

    Besides Windows, are there plans to make apps available on iOS and/or Android?

    • Lytro

      Nothing other than Windows is on the immediate roadmap.

  • Loretta

    Hi, Just to verify, I can download the photos directly to my Mac? The software come with it? Is it for sale yet? Can I only order it on-line or can I buy it at a retailer? I can’t wait to play with it!

    • Lytro

      Yes, you will be able to download your pictures from your camera to your own computer. Each Lytro camera purchase includes free desktop software that imports, processes and lets you interact with your pictures on your computer, and share them online so that others can interact with them too. It is on sale at Lytro.com right now. Cameras start shipping in early 2012.

  • Bernd NEUTAG

    sorry for my bad english:

    maybe a big target group of customer is Computer Graphics Developer: http://beta.workshops.cgsociety.org/index.php?force_frontpage=1
    When we make a 3D-Objekt we need to texturing it. For a real result we need height map (or depth map) information.
    3D-User generate normalmaps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3CaZPm2bs8
    http://zarria.net/nrmphoto/nrmphoto.html

    Or a new 3D-Feature is Parallax Occlusion mapping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcAsJdo7dME&feature=related
    But is not available for each 3D-App. Is too new.

    I think the camera takes a lot of informations at one shot.
    Maybe this is a good source for texturing content :-)
    Maybe the information can extract specular information, too.
    Here is a website looks like usefull for develope software for this cam: http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/slf/papers/siggraph2000/talk/
    ??? There is a EMail adress at the end of the site ;-)

    Photo Sculpt generate this out of stereo-Images:
    http://www.photosculpt.net/blog/
    http://www.photosculpt.net/gallery/

    I think it is possible that your cam can be a very good tool for each 3D-User!

    I will be happy about a Comment :)

  • kftgr

    I’ve played around with the images in the gallery and was wondering, would it be possible for the software to display everything in focus at once? The data is obviously there as we can focus on each part separately.

  • http://www.kennethgreene.com Kenneth

    I am very excited for this camera to arrive. I have already ordered one. I wasn’t sure at first but it has been very helpful and interesting to read the questions people have about this camera, its technology, etc. But I have not seen any response by the Lytro company. I am hoping they read these posts as people have come up with great questions. So, I would like to see someone from the company address these questions and concerns and not lead me to believe these questions exist in a vacuum and no one is listening. With that being said, I am excited to get mine….

    • Lytro

      Kenneth, in addition to reading comments and responses on the Lytro Blog, you might also find the FAQs on our Support site helpful.

  • Alex

    Is there any chance that Lytro camera can save a “raw” file that other software can work on it? Or, any SDK that software company can use to develope more exciting functions? Or just a plugin?

    • Foxfire

      Hi, I love this entry level technology. It will change the concept of digital photography.

      The only reservation I have, is how do you control shutterspeed.

      From the interactive pictures, when enlarged appear quite grainy. Will you be looking to tackle that problem?

      If you can not improve on the grain, it will remain in the family snapper consumer market.
      Love the the camera, love the concept, love the technology

  • http://N/A Don Hire

    when do you antisipate having the windows apps done?? hopefully before march or april 2012!!! RSVP Don A Hire

  • http://www.cutgrafix.com Rod Campbell

    Love the concept. All the sample shots are basically still life, how does the camera handle movement within the shot, say high speed motorsport for example. What is the native comparable “shutter speed”?

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  • Mike

    The AsiaD demonstration and your animated GIF convinced me to order a Lytro camera. I used the two outer frames of the GIF to make a simple 3D anaglyph and it looked great on my screen. I then made a quick 3D lenticular print using the 5 unique frames within the GIF and I thought that turned out pretty nice too.

    I am very impressed with the extended depth of field in your 3D samples and the ability to render the scene from different viewpoints.

    I’m looking forward to using your new camera to create photographic art.

  • http://blog.trafficshaper.com Bob Mahar

    First off, speaking as a would be physicist turned computer nerd, holy !

    Second, I love time lapse photography and also write my own processing tools. I’m wondering if there is a way to take a time lapse series with the camera as shipped? ( I suspect “no.” and even so a few hundred frames does not a good time lapse make. )

    Obviously the next ( or 3rd, or 50th ) step is motion pictures, as the resulting image is approximately HD in size you have what is needed. While the camera processor may not permit 30fps capturing, it certainly would lend itself to time laspe, provided you had a means to store more than the few hundred images the current product affords us, and or tether the camera, and or do interval shooting. I’m pretty sure Hollywood would love to be able to do focus pulling in post processing.

    I mean this in the nicest way possible, I really do, because its a stunning technical achievement. But I would only say that while the Apple-esque product delivery model is great… its terrible for integrators, innovators, tinkerers – and the rest of the people who might find a way to imagine uses for it. What if this were the model for the LiPO battery? Or aspheric optics? Or any of the other technologies you employ in your product. – it would not exist. Or it would be the size of a toaster, or only come in blue. I assume the application limited packaging is by design. A technology preview to get IHV’s drooling. But what is the point to the first change in photography since halide emulsions if it is relegated to taking incredible pictures of our house cats. ;-)

    I guess what I’m saying is, after you make your investors a lot of money, which you will, make a model for “the rest of us.” ( With a SDXC slot, an intervalometer, and a time lapse friendly full frame average metering mode. )

    Boy am I needy.

    – Bob

    • Lytro

      Bob…this is just the beginning of the light field journey. More to come.

  • http://web.me.com/njk000 Nick Kenyon

    Can you please give details on ISO and Lens structure (comparative / depths) so we can make a proper evaluation. Having said that, the whole concept looks great.. I shoot for film and tv stills, so the instant ans silent capture would be advantageous, especially with the ability to change the focal point at a later stage..best of luck with the whole project and I will follow this with interest. Nick.

    • Lytro

      More answers on the Support site, including this about controls.

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  • http://www.sentientvision.com Paul

    My company, Sentient Vision Systems, develops Computer Vision Software for analysis of ISR imagery on ground and airborne vehicles moving through complex real world environments. Your technology interests us greatly. We would like to investigate the possibility of using a large array or your cameras to do 3D model building of real world environments (post-processed from imagery gathered in single transits). We would like to learn a lot more about your technology and understand how we might use/process the data (and a hundred other similar questions). Could we establish a point of contact for some initial discussions? Regards, Paul B

  • mariano

    me gustaria poder probar una de estas camaras, porque aun no entiendo COMO puede ser que haga algo asi!!!! me caigo y me levanto del asombro!!!

  • ERIC HEIM

    Hi, I am very interested in this from a physics and technology point of view. I am reading the Dissertation and it is helpful. But I want to know, how “new” or revolutionary is this? It seems that, for example, Raytrix in Germany already has a light field camera. How is your different? Does it use a different optical method, or are the capabilities different? Please let me know. Thanks very much.

  • Kevin Cheng

    is there a way to have multiple sharp focus points? or can it only focus on one point at a time? ideally i’d like to be able to bring out the sharpness of more than 1 part of a picture. considering that the focus can be moved to any part of the picture, wondering if it can be expanded or have multiple focus points.

  • http://bubcap.com Rob Mitchell

    I have been fascinated by this technology since I first read about it on tech blogs a number of years ago. In my opinion, this is the 1.0 version of THE future of photography. I think this will be game changer, though perhaps that won’t be known to the world until version 2 or 3. Yes, I’m a geek, and who knows, maybe I’ll get cold feet and cancel before it ships (or if/when the wife finds out). Most people probably shouldn’t buy this camera, but I am so excited that this technology has become a reality for consumers, that I just ordered this camera… Wish I could be an investor!

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  • http://www.realnicegraphics.com Eric

    Overall the concept is cool and while I signed up / in and gave several feedback responses to get in the loop to get the camera first, I’ve kind of backed off a touch. Why? Well I know we really “shouldn’t” be comparing it to a regular digital camera but how can one help not to? On that front, I find the lack of actual specs (as it relates to specs we can understand) disconcerting and so can only go based on what I see and assumptions. For output I see one file type which I’m certain is not compatible with pretty much anything I currently use. I also only see “HD” quality output. Well that’s actually rather low when it comes to digital specs. 1080 pixels high? Hmm… So then I look at all the examples, again, none of the samples really jump out at me as being exceptionally “sharp”. The infocus/out of foucs feature is neat… but really.. how useful is it at the end of the day? If the megapixels is so low, regardless of if we can refocus after the fact, it’s still a low res image and doesn’t have much use except maybe for Facebook posts or whatnot.

    So for me, $399 seems a bit steep to just be able to shoot low-res photos that you can adjust the focal point later.

    I will hold out hope that perhaps a year or two down the road, we can maybe see a 5 or 8 megapixel version of this, but until then 2 megapixels is hmm… a bit low, despite the things you can do with this type of camera/file.

    • KT

      I find the lack of crisp sharp focusing puzzling myself. I’m assuming the samples presented in the Lytro Picture Gallery are “ideal” images and I just don’t see the WOW factor when viewing them.

      • Chris

        There’s something odd with the way the images are reconstructed. I notice some type of interference patters around smooth edges. Also, the pictures look rasterized like they were printed from a cheap photo printer. I’m not sure if the images on this site are compressed or decimated somehow for easy viewing, or if the distortion is induced by the way the phases and magnitudes of the light field are recombined.

        • Todd Adkins

          I was incredibly intrigued when reading about this – then I saw the image quality in the samples on their home page.

          Agree with Eric; not really usable images for anything other than a Facebook post – and that’s a lot of money for a Facebook toy.

          Would be interested in looking at this again should their image quality dramatically increase.

          The tech is WAY cool – the image quality kills the deal though.

    • Matt

      I believe you need to think of this camera as sort of a “post-print era” device. The images created by it are not meant for printing at high resolutions; they are meant to be viewed on-screen, be it a monitor or a tablet or a smartphone. Which, when you think about it, is the way all things are going. I’ll still carry around the 5D MkII for hi-res shots, but I can see huge potential for this little device for creating immersive websites and presentations. These images sing on an iPad- it seems like magic. So much more interactive to the touch than an Instagram shot, for example. The fact that the camera takes instant exposures and is small enough to fit in my pocket leads me to think I would use it a lot, even when I have other cameras with me. And, the fact is, I rarely make many prints anymore. Everyone I share pics with has a screen of some sort. I’m intrigued.

  • Greg

    Can these “images” be used as interactive Desktop backgrounds? I’m assuming they run on flash player… so probably not yet, but prove me wrong.

    • Matt

      It’s not Flash, they work on iOS devices. May be HTML5?

      • Greg

        Good insight, Matt… html makes sense.

  • Marion

    Eric,

    I see you are an underwater photographer… any chance Lytro will come out with an underwater housing any time soon?

  • Makofoto

    What is the native ISO of the sensor?

  • Anthony

    I would personally love to see this technology be adapted to video. I’d assume the camera needs an insane amount of power and memory to do so, but focussing a video AFTER you’ve taken it just seems very awesome.

    BTW, what actually is the final resolution of the image in the camera? Because I’ve been trying to find that out for a long while now. Is it possible to take a captured image in the software and output a decent-quality regular image format photo? (like a JPG or even better, RAW?)

  • Carl Tanner

    Can this technology be adapted to video? Can several cameras be set in an array to capture 360 degrees? What is the closest focus, or is it possible to do macro? Can it be adapted to a microscope?

  • Louie Lee

    If parallax shifts and 3D are features that you would not be offering soon, then I hope the Mac software will have some way (API, AppleScript, etc) to allow someone else to automate the process of making these features work.

    I travel the world for conferences. I often take an extra day or 2 to see the sights and post my photos for my 700+ FB friends. I can’t wait to show them what your camera can do. (Is there any way you can put me on your priority list? I’m not asking for a free unit.)

    Thanks!
    Louie

  • Kevin

    I would love to get ahold of the software seeing as it can process out of focus photos. Will you guys be selling it separately?

    • Jason

      I doubt the software would work on regular out of focus images. The cam works on collecting the light field, so (this next part isn’t technically correct, but I’d rather avoid a loooong explanation), everything is ‘in focus’ when you take your pic using this camera. With regular Digital SLR cams, really any cam other than this, you must focus or the image detail is lost for good. One day the software will exist, but I would doubt this software would ‘cure’ out of focus shots.

      Think of it this way – you don’t take a picture of the image, rather you take a ‘picture’ of the light field, capturing a lot more data than other cameras.

  • Guy Vertommen

    Jut one question: when do you plan to sell it in Europe ?

  • Simon

    Can you use this camera without the lens as an image sensor on a telescope? Focus is one of the hardest things to acheive in astronomical imaging so if this is possible this would be awesome. What sort of quantum efficiency would this sensor have?

  • Corey Campbell

    Very cool. Would it be possible to use the parallax shift along with image data about zoom to be able to determine distance? You could form a rudimentary 3D object. What about editing software? That would be handy. I can see this being useful for security applications in facial recognition at varying distances.

  • http://gelopsycho.tumblr.com Gelo Zayco

    i would love to test your cameras. hope you could send me one for free. ill post reviews and photos and try to help you sell LYTRO. thanks. wo0ho0!

  • David

    Would it be possible to link 2 or more lytro cameras, and have them take pictures from different angles at the same moment. Then in post-processing be able to figure out what the subject looked like from various angles, not just the specific angles of those cameras. In other words, interpolate an image from several points of view?

    • Louie Lee

      If there’s a reliable way to strap 2 cameras such that the view is level and the aim is true, then I would love to see that also. But a better way might be to have a larger camera with a bigger lens diameter so that you get a wider field of view in the end from a single “image”.

      • David

        Well, I wonder if it’s really necessary to know at capture-time the exact relative positions of the cameras. Or could it be done in post-production by having a user, or some image processing algorithm, identify points of common reference within the image, and then calculate the relative camera positions from that? And then, use those relative positions to interpolate the rest of the image, in order to generate different points of view. I know nothing about these matters, just speculating. But you probably do need a way to make sure both cameras snap the shot at the same time, so that implies some kind of wireless communication between them.

        • StuART BAUMGARD

          I’m concerned that you offer to purchase now maybe a sign that you are under-capitalized?

          What assurance do I have that if you do not get into production, for whatever reason, that my original investment will be recovered in its entirety?

          What is your refund policy?

          Is the camera capable of macrophotography and if so, to what magnification?

          Does the camera have a tripod adapter to prevent camera shake?

          Stuart

          • Alex

            StuART,
            In the purchase agreement, they will not charge your credit card until they ship.
            Disclaimer: I am not an employee or representative of Lytro, but I do have a Hot Red one on order.

          • Lytro

            Alex is correct, we don’t charge your credit card until your camera ships. There’s much more Q&A on our Support site, including info about our Return and Refund policy.

  • http://jaitanjuphotography.com/ Jai Tanju

    hi my name is Jai tanju and im a photographer from san jose ca. i love to test out your camera? im sure you have alot of people asking to test your camera but i think im as different of a photographer as your camera is to cameras? my website isnt done yet but is a good rep of what i do? you can also google my name a find out more about me. i do alot of different projects and love to shoot with all kinds of different cameras! 408-993-1524
    jai