The Lytro Light Field Camera
Medical applications
I take lots of pictures in the OR, so I can think of several relevant applications for physicians who take pictures of operative sites, surgical scars, and who document progression of treatment. This can work in the office or in the operating room.
The camera’s abilities in low light conditions are especially attractive – sometimes the lighting in the clinic or in the OR isn’t perfect.
I do use quite a bit of macro photography in my practice, so I’d be curious to know how close you can get with this camera for close-up shots.
More reviews of the Lytro camera
Here are the links to two videos that give physical tours of the Lytro camera:
Cnet Review of the Lytro
Engadget Review of the Lytro Light Field Camera
Caveat for Windows users interested in the Lytro
The Lytro camera software only works for Macs now, but a Windows version will be available in the future.
On the Lytro website, you can sign up to be notified when the Windows application is ready.
Try out the living picture technology
You can try out the refocusing technology developed by Lytro on their website.
Jim Beckman says
January 4, 2012 at 3:19 pmWhat a really neat little camera! Thanks for sharing. I too take many photos of wounds healing, skin condition, etc. but currently use a Nikon D200 with lenses and lighting for the purpose. The Lytro would be handy to carry in the car though.
Frank says
February 17, 2012 at 9:30 pmCan you put a Lytro picture into a PowerPoint presentation and still alter the focal plane?
Noel says
February 18, 2012 at 7:24 amGood question, Frank – I don’t know. The Lytro doohickey (software that comes with the camera) would have to be embeddable in the PowerPoint presentation, like a movie file. It might work if you had an internet connection during the presentation and you could embed a link to an online version of the viewer.
You could probably try this by extracting the code from their website and inserting it into a PPT presentation.
Let me know if you figure out an answer. I’ll do the same.
Noel
Noel says
February 18, 2012 at 11:04 amOne solution is to use the online (Flash-based, I think) version of the software to demonstrate the focal length transitions of your image while doing a screen capture video of it.
You can then load the video into the presentation and let it play when you get to that slide.
Sort of an in between option, but would work until a smoother option is available.
Noel