Recent Research and Innovation
Research and development continues to refine the lighting, optics, sensors, processing, storage, display, and software used in digital photography. Here are a few examples.
- 3D models can be created from collections of normal images. The resulting scene can be viewed from novel viewpoints, but creating the model is very computationally intensive. An example is Microsoft's Photosynth, which provides some models of famous places as examples.
- High dynamic range cameras and displays are commercially available. Sensors with dynamic range in excess of 1,000,000:1 are in development, and software is also available to combine multiple non-HDR images (shot with different exposures) into an HDR image.
- Motion blur can be dramatically removed by a flutter shutter (a flickering shutter that adds a signature to the blur, which postprocessing recognizes). It is not yet commercially available.
- An object's specular reflection can be captured using computer controlled lights and sensors. This is needed to create attractive images of oil paintings, for instance. It is not yet commercially available, but is starting to be used by museums.
- Dust reduction systems to help keep dust off of image sensors, originally introduced only by a few cameras like Olympus DSLRs, have now become standard in most models and brands.
Other areas of progress include improved sensors, more powerful software, enlarged-gamut displays, and computer controlled lighting.
Read more about this topic: Digital Photography
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