This experimental camera can focus on everything at once

Historically, a camera lens could only focus on one object at a time, just like the human eye. However, this may be a thing of the past, thanks to advanced lens technology developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) that can focus on every part of a scene clearly, capturing finer details across the entire image, regardless of distance.

Conventional lenses are limited to sharpening one focal plane (the distance between the object and the camera) at a time, blurring everything behind or in front of that object. This effect can add a sense of depth to images, but seeing the full image clearly usually requires you to combine multiple images taken at different focal lengths. This is new”Spatially varying autofocusInstead, the system combines a mix of technologies that “allow the camera to determine which parts of the image need to be sharp — giving each pixel its own small, adjustable lens,” according to the Verge. CMU Associate Professor Matthew O’Toole.

The researchers developed a “computational lens” that combines a Lohmann lens—two curved, cubic lenses that move against each other to adjust focus—with a phase-only spatial light modulator—a device that controls how light is bent at each pixel—allowing the system to focus at different depths simultaneously. It also uses two autofocus methods: Contrast Detection Autofocus (CDAF), which divides images into areas that sharpen independently, and Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF), which detects whether an object is in focus and which focus direction should be adjusted.

The experimental system “could radically change the way cameras see the world,” according to Carnegie Mellon University professor Aswin Sankaranarayanan.

It’s not available on any commercial camera you can actually buy, and it may be a while before options, if ever, start to appear on the market. The Carnegie Mellon University researchers point out that this technology could have broader applications beyond traditional photography, including improving efficiency in microscopes, creating deep depth perception for virtual reality headsets, and helping self-driving vehicles see their surroundings with “unprecedented clarity.”