Toshiba to take on Lytro with refocusing smartphone camera

Toshiba is working on an image sensor that will let smartphone or tablet users refocus photos that have already been shot, according to the Asahi Shimbun. The effect sounds very similar to the Lytro light field camera that was released earlier this year, but that device was over four inches long.

Toshiba’s module, on the other hand, is cube-shaped, uses an array of over 500,000 microlenses in front of a 5 x 7mm sensor, and measures about one centimeter on each side, meaning it should fit into a smartphone — albeit not a particularly thin one. Toshiba’s software will combine the images captured by each microlens to give focusing control after the fact, or to create one image where every object is in focus.

See samples how does it work: https://pictures.lytro.com/

Click to different parts of the photo to refocus it. Great feature for a phone, to always get a clear image about the object, that you really wanted to capture.

Read more at The Vegre