Lytro launches iOS mobile app

Lytro is bringing more visuals into your life with its new Lytro Mobile App. The app is designed to let you view and interact what they call “living pictures” on your iPhone and iPad. You can even use gestures, such as tap to focus and tilt or rotate to change perspective, on 64-bit devices (iPhone 5S, iPad Air, or iPad mini Retina). It also lets you change the aperture of the picture with just a two-finger twist. It also lets you share your living pictures on Messages, Email, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest directly from the app.

Toshiba unveils camera module with Lytro-like capabilities

Toshiba announced the company’s efforts to develop a new camera module designed to allow refocusing for smartphone photos. The TCM9518MD module will be built with two 5-megapixel sensors and a dedicated processing chip to take both image and depth information and allow for after image refocusing (much like what the Lytro camera is doing).

The module is up for sampling at the moment, which means manufacturers can order small batches of the module to test for future devices.

 Source: Toshiba

New Apple patent focuses on Lytro-like refocusable camera

The Lytro camera was an exciting and novel device that allowed photographers and people viewing images online to focus their digital images after they were taken. Expensive and hard to find, the Lytro camera really failed to turn a great idea into a profitable business. Apple has recently secured  a patent for a similar refocusable camera that might give future iPhones the ability to shoot images and refocus later on depending on what aspect they'd like to highlight. Nokia's Lumia 1020 already has a similar application called Refocus which works very much the same way (i.e. images posted online can be refocused by viewers). Since iPhones have consistently been among the most used cameras, this feature will expand their functionality. Hope they make it to market sooner rather than later.

Source: Appleinsider

Lytro expands availability, coming to Canada, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore

Lytro Inc., creator of the world’s first consumer light field camera, has announced that it will expand distribution to both US and international customers. Lytro takes photos like any other digital camera but users can manipulate the photos on the Web to change the focus points. The revolutionary idea here is that you can focus on images after they are taken and keep finding different focus points in one single photo.

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