I've just found this really unique camera called a Lytro. Rather than capturing photographs in a traditional sense, the Lytro captures 'light fields'. Now I put 'light fields' in inverted commas because, to be frank, I don't understand what they are! But what it allows you to do, is refocus your photos beyond the moment. Check out these shots below, you can click on different areas of the shots and choose a focal point.
This allows for a more interactive and playful experience when viewing photos digitally and via the Lytro website it's easy to embed them or post them on Facebook.
The camera itself has an extremely sleek and simple design and is very user friendly, with a small touchscreen on the end of the cuboid that allows you to edit the exposure. The only catch at the moment is the price, starting at $399. On their (very well designed) website it says that the photos are HD-quality, but at no point does it mention the actual resolution, which is unusual for a camera. Rather than so-and-so megapixels, it's 11 'megarays'. This camera doesn't just plug into your iPhoto library either, it produces .lfp files for you to upload to the Lytro website, so you can view the interactive versions wherever you are.
It's unusual and still quite niche, but I see it as a starting point. How long until we can film HD video with the ability to refocus in post production? This could be one step towards virtual reality, giving interactive experiences a 3D dimension without having to wear glasses and get headaches. In a world surrounded by iPads, this is a great way of viewing photographs, but there is also scope for this technique to be used within advertising and storytelling with the user literally able to focus on the subject of their choice.
I may not have fully grasped the science behind the Lytro but there is more detail available on their website here.
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