May we all see like insects: light fields and plenoptic lenses. There could well be an interesting shift in specialised photography where extracting 3D data from digital images shot with either special lenses or sensors (and with a lot of post-processing/number crunching) become useful tools for VFX practitioners.
(Full disclosure: like most people, I’ve had a lenticular fascination since I was a kid. I just didn’t know what to call it…)
Now, of the technology, the immediate, demonstrated applications are variable focus (in post); or the ability to move the camera and change perspective within about a 10° arc. While this is something readily achievable in a layered composite, the implications of it being readily available and nicely packaged with a bow are quite interesting (see: focus stacking, helicon focus). And, if (if!) it can be applied to moving images, then there would depth information that you could use to extract layers. That is, you wouldn’t have to pull a key; you could go without green-screen; rotoscoping would be easy… oh, the possibilities… Okay, I’m getting way ahead of the technology.
But then, beyond the “3D” hype, there have been a lot of recent, significant developments in sensor technology, such as the Panasonic high dynamic range sensor… and even the CIA is hocking its image technology. Yes, the Central Intelligence Agency. Insert your conspiracy theories here. How about the Gigapan $300 (?) photo-robot…
While we may wait for a new digital camera in the coming months, we should probably bear in mind that Moore’s Law can be applied to digital photography and cinematography…
More reading: Refocus Imaging; Max Hodges comments; Stephen Shankland article; Photography 2.0/R&D…