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3D Cameras Are About To Go Mainstream
An anonymous reader writes: Vox's Timothy B. Lee reports that everyday imaging is about to take a big step forward as 3D photography finally makes it to prime time. Technological advances in 3D processing algorithms have accelerated at the same time the equipment for taking these shots has become significantly cheaper. Those facts combined mean that we're going to be seeing 3D cameras become much more prevalent very quickly. "If things go according to Intel's plan, within a few years all of our tablets and laptops, and perhaps even our smartphones, will have fancy 3D cameras instead of boring old 2D ones." Throw in the fledgling industries of commercial camera drones and autonomous vehicles, and you have a lot of major companies throwing huge amounts of research money into making cheap 3D cameras work. "The result will be a proliferation of devices, from tablets to self-driving cars, that understand and interact with the world around them."
I think it's nothing short of amazing how far tablet / phone cameras have come in terms of picture quality, given the crappy lens and tiny sensor. Zoom, low light performance and a halfway decent flash are the obvious things missing from those cameras, but pictures taken in good light conditions actually look very good. Good enough to enlarge and print, and good enough for most people to be unable to tell that the photo was taken with a phone rather than a proper camera.
And nothing beats the camera you have on you.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
In a consumer video context, "3D" means "stereoptic", not "volumetric". I thought everyone realised that by now.