Engineers and technicians are working on a project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena, Germany that will advance digital photography in one, giant leap.

In simplest terms, digital light-field photography could make it possible to shoot photos without the need of an external lens, a shutter or shutter release.

The technology is now being applied to the development of a chip the size of a fingernail that has more than 200 very tiny lenses positioned on its surface. This is similar to the structure of an insect’s eye. Each lens records a small portion of a photo, and then all them are combined on a computer to create the complete image. The chips are so small that they could be placed nearly anywhere or on anything and someone could observe and record everything they see.

Digital light-field photography will also make it possible to manipulate the images recorded by each chip in a computer to create a 3D image.

Digital light-field photography is also the engineering behind the Lytro digital camera that PhotographyTalk profiled in this News Section earlier. The Lytro is the camera that allows you to choose what object will be in focus in the photo – after you take it.

The German scientists are still in the R&D stage, working with just prototypes of the chips, so the revolution won’t arrive just yet; however, don’t be surprised when it comes.

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