Stanford Geeks Develop Open-Source Frankencamera

Prof. Marc Levoy and graduate student Andrew Adams with the Frankencamera.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could customize our own cameras to make it perform exactly as we want it? That is the aim of Stanford graduate student Andrew Adams and his professor Marc Levoy, who pioneers in computational photography.

Andrew and Marc have already developed a prototype camera, which they call the Frankencamera, an “open-source” camera for which programmers around the world can write software to give it new features to control the camera’s functions like focus, aperture, shutter speed, exposure, dynamic range, flash, etc.

If the technology catches on, camera performance will be no longer be limited by the software that comes pre-installed by the manufacturer. Andrew envisions the new camera to be able to download applications like the iPhone does at present and customize its functions.

[Via: PhysOrg.com]
Photo: PhysOrg.com

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.