November 2010

Michael Zhang

MIT Camera Uses Echos of Light to See Around Corners

The "femtosecond transient imaging system" is a camera being developed by researchers at MIT that uses high intensity light from a femtosecond laser to capture images from around corners. Once the laser beam bounces around the scene and returns to the sensor, algorithms are used to turn the time and distance information into a representation of the scene.

Michael Zhang

C-Loop Strap Mount Upgrades Your Boring Camera Strap

You might be seeing your photography enthusiast friends upgrading their camera straps left and right, opting for fancier ones that are attached to the bottom of a camera via the tripod mount, but what if you're super attached to your traditional strap? Say hello to the C-Loop, a simple little attachment being developed by Custom SLR and funded through Kickstarter. It's an elegant solution for transforming your beloved (albeit ordinary) strap into a fancier R-Strap-style one.

Michael Zhang

Homemade 900mm Super Telephoto Lens

Over at Leica User Forum, member dkpeterborough wrote a series of posts detailing how he and a fellow member of the Peterborough Photographic Society named Tony Lovell created a beastly 900mm lens. The lens uses optics salvaged from a government flight simulator projector lens, and cost only hundreds of pounds in parts (comparable lenses cost thousands).

Michael Zhang

High Speed Photography Helps Unlock Mystery of How Cats Drink

In 1877, photographer Eadweard Muybridge settled a longstanding debate on whether or not a horse completely leaves the ground at any point during its gallop by taking a single photograph of a horse completely airborne. In the same way, photography was also used recently by a group of researchers to uncover the mystery of how cats drink.

Michael Zhang

Futuristic Eye Dropper Concept for Transferring Photos and Files

The i dropper is a conceptual device designed to make transferring photographs from different devices and computers intuitive, quick, and easy. To move a photograph from your iPad to your desktop, all you would have to do is "suck up" the photo on your iPad using the stylus pen-shaped device, and "drop" the data onto your computer screen. What's more, the data contained in the pen is displayed on a little screen to inform you of what's ready to be dropped.

Michael Zhang

Instax Mini Print Playing Card Deck

Sarah Ann created this beautiful full deck of 52 playing cards using Instax Mini instant film prints. Each card is a unique, and is a photograph of the card it represents.

Michael Zhang

What Photoshop Might Be Like on Mobile Computing Devices

Here are a couple mockups by MacRumors showing what Photoshop might look like on mobile computing devices like the iPad or iPhone. Adobe recently published a presentation they did on various things they're exploring with such devices. An example was using Content Aware Fill to modify a scene by painting over objects to be removed using your finger.