Light Field Smartphone: Pelican showcases Full-HD 3D Video

Pelican Imaging is working hard on releasing “a smart camera for your Smartphone”. Their first generation 4×4 camera array is reportedly 50 % thinner than current smartphone camera modules. It captures the Light Field not by use of a microlens array, but using – in this case – 16 individual fixed focus cameras.

But hardware is only one part of the technology. It’s strengh lies in the power of post-processing and sophisticated computation.
In a new demo released today, Pelican Imaging demonstrates 3D video recording at 1080p and 30 fps, as well as two application examples: distance measurement within the picture, and 3D printing of recorded scenes.

Pelican Imaging has developed a revolutionary array camera for mobile devices that provides consumers with the ability to capture 3D video, as well as still images.
This will enable people to do some really cool stuff! What if you could refocus after the fact, measure distance between any two points, or create a depth map/3D model of any scene? Be creative.

While this is certainly exciting news, we wouldn’t go so far as to say that customers “won’t be able to take a bad picture”. ;)

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