‘Customizable’ Camera Software to Revolutionize Photography?

The way we use cameras may be about to change—forever, according to MIT't Technology Review website.

New software is making it possible for photographers to reprogram their digital cameras and create images that have previously been impossible.

Researchers at Stanford University created the software, which runs on Nokia N900 phones and will enable a broad range of apps. With certain apps, you can already gain greater control over your N900 phone: capture both light and dark parts of a scene, create extremely sharp photos, even in low light, and automatically stitch panoramic photos together.

Although digital photography has always been constrained by a camera’s manufacturer software, “computational photography” seeks to change all that. With CP, software gives the user more control over the camera’s components. This type of work has seen some modest success with traditional digital cameras, including Stanford's "Frankencamera." But now, smart phone cameras are opening up even greater possibilities.

The images captured using computational photography can be stunning. Now, cameras can shoot a series of images at focuses, then combine them to make a single image in which objects at any distance appear sharp.