OmniVision introduces TrueFocus Wavefront Coding technology
This is exactly what you want on your business card:
Ewan MacLeod
VP, TrueFocus Wavefront Coding Solutions
Apart from sounding rather wickedly cool, Wavefront appears to be rather shit-hot. SMS Text News reader Tim dropped me a note to let me know about it.
Have a quick read…
OmniVision Technologies, Inc., a leading independent supplier of CMOS CameraChip(TM) solutions for high-volume imaging applications, today launched its first TrueFocus(TM) camera with Wavefront Coding(TM) technology for the mobile handset market. TrueFocus revolutionizes camera technology by offering true ‘point-and-shoot’ capability where the entire image is always in focus and always available for instant one-click capture.
I’d like that. Big time. Very cool.
Pictures on mobiles are just getting better and better — the Sony Ericsson K800 is one of the best on the market I’ve seen. But see if we can get some Wavefront coding in there… get in!
It’s quite a cool example — the picture there — showing the difference between your standard 3 megapixel mobile phone camera and the Wavefront equivalent.
Omnivision are at http://www.ovt.com/.
That comparison photo they’ve provided might not be the best one. All the TrueFocus pic seems to have done is choose a better ISO setting. Not that that’s a bad thing, because it’s clearly the better picture, but if you follow the lines from the bottom right corner of the pic into the centre, you’ll notice the entire image is not actually “always in focus”.
It is, perhaps, a little sharper. But the biggest change between those two pics is the light levels. I’m not saying it doesn’t work though, just that the improvements in the depth of field don’t really seem that marked in that image. Hardly enough to convince me to put another piece of silicon in a cameraphone.
Posted by Daniel on February 14th, 2007 at 12:29 am.I am impressed .
Posted by BW Lee on February 17th, 2007 at 3:01 pm.A better example is at the CDM website.
http://www.cdm-optics.com/