The View From Above: In Hard Focus Round-up (July 19, 2011)

Mapping local businesses one ‘gig’ at a time: App Gigawalk is leveraging the mobile masses in order to provide companies with valuable insight and information about their business operations. Companies post ‘gigs,’ such as taking pictures of a specific storefront or verifying a billboard advertisement, which app users can complete and submit for payment. Most interesting though, is the feature that GigaOM describes as “a kind of Google Streetview to the insides of restaurants and stores.”

Shallowing smartphones’ depth-of-field: Wired reports that Samsung has a new patent that could allow cell phone users the ability to take photos with a shallow depth-of-field, thus bringing specific objects out of the background and into focus. The technology includes dual lens and works similarly to 3-D cameras. It sure would beat toting a heavy camera around on vacation.

Sony announces return of VR headset: Sony is gearing up, literally, to reintroduce virtual reality headsets back into the gaming world, a move Engadget is calling “very 1995.” Nonetheless, Sony London Studio chief Mick Hocking is still pursuing the development of 3-D products, such as Sony’s PlayStation 3-D monitor.