Earlier this month, we looked at a new kind of camera built at Bell Labs that creates pictures using no lenses and only a single pixel. This lensless design is simple and easy to construct and suffers none of the aberrations usually associated with lenses—indeed none of the scene is out of focus. So it’s easy to imagine that lensless cameras are threatening to change the way we think about imaging.
Today Hong Jiang and pals from Bell Labs show off another capability of their new design. The original camera makes an ordinary image with a single pixel. Jiang and co show how, with two pixels, it’s possible to create two different images of the scene.
Just where we’ll see practical applications of this kind of camera isn’t yet clear. But people who photograph slow-moving objects with expensive gear ought to be particularly interested. Since the lens or mirror is the most expensive part of any telescope—particularly space telescopes–perhaps astronomers will be first in the queue.
Read the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/view/516351/lensless-camera-takes-multiple-view-pictures/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20130625