Researchers at Columbia University’s Computer Vision Lab have unveiled a thin, flexible “sheet camera” that can be attached to any surface to take photos and videos from angles that previously seemed impossible.
The device can be wrapped around a lamp post to record 360-degree videos, around the outside of a car to help drivers better see blind spots, or simply used as a standard camera with the ability to fit into a wallet.
“If such cameras can be made at a low cost (ideally, like a roll of plastic sheet), they can be used to image the world in ways that would be difficult to achieve using one or more conventional cameras,” the researchers said.
The team proposed to design a deformable (elastic) lens array in order to avoid any under-sampling that could occur and lead to a captured image that is not bandlimited. If designed carefully, the deformable lenses of the array will change shape (and focal length) under bending forces in a way that lessens aliasing.
A notable feature of the “sheet camera” is that the lens array can achieve aliasing completely passively, without the use of any per-pixel actuation or control. The optics can be combined with a flexible sensor array to obtain a complete sheet camera.
While the device is still in the prototyping phase and the resolution is low, it succeeds as a proof of concept. The next step is to create flexible sheet cameras capable of taking higher resolution images.
Via Mashable
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