What the huh?! Yeah, I’m still trying to grasp this one myself. Lytro is a Silicon Valley startup that’s set to announce today a consumer camera that uses what’s called light field technology. The idea is that when the picture is taken, the camera records a lot more information than a standard camera would. Regular cameras record the total sum of light rays being received. Light field cameras record color, intensity, and direction of EACH ray individually. Think of it as multi-track recording as opposed to having the whole band play all at once. Previous attempts to do this required a hundred cameras and massive computing power but Lytro says they can do it all in one and at a reasonable price. So you can manipulate the image after you take it by choosing what you want to see, where you want to focus. You can even make 3D images. The camera comes out later this year.
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