Stanford team develops open source ‘Frankencamera’

by admin September 7, 2009 at 2:40 pm

Stanford photo scientists are releasing an open-source digital camera designed to allow programmers to teach cameras new tricks.

If the technology catches on – and it’s a big if – camera performance need not be limited by manufacturers’ preinstalled software. Virtually all the features of the Stanford camera – such as focus, exposure, shutter speed and flash – can be software-controlled by programmers anywhere.

The plan is to make the Frankencamera available at minimal cost to computational photography researchers. Consumers could download applications to open-platform cameras the way Apple apps are downloaded to iPhones today. When the camera’s operating software is made available publicly – perhaps a year from now – users will be able to improve it, along the open-source model of Linux or Firefox.

Read more: tgdaily.com