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SHUTTER TO THINK
Lytro founder Ren Ng is taking the blur
(and the fuss) out of photography
If you’ve ever taken pictures all day on that
fancy new digital SLR only to discover—when
you finally take a look on your computer—
that most of the shots are blurry, then Ren Ng
is ready to help. As founder and CEO of Lytro,
the 35-year-old Stanford Ph.D. is responsible
for one of the most significant photographic
inventions since the Polaroid camera. In
December, Ng’s company debuted the Lytro
Camera ($399, lytro.com), a stylish, telescope-
like device that allows you to focus the picture
a er
you take it.
Representing an entirely new kind of
camera, the Lytro uses light field imaging,
a photographic process that typically requires
100 digicams and a supercomputer, to capture
light more accurately and comprehensively
than traditional cameras do. The result:
highly editable pictures. Light field technology
has been around since the 1990s, but Ng’s
breakthrough came when he compressed
the work of the aforementioned digicams
and supercomputer into one portable device
small enough to fit in a purse or briefcase. (As
a bonus, the extra information on Lytro-
captured pictures means each one is also
automatically available in 3-D, if you care
about that sort of thing.)
The Lytro is about as knob-free as an iPad,
with most of its controls on a touchscreen.
“With all their modes and dials and but-
tons, the majority of cameras today are too
complicated for most people,” says Ng. “You
can’t use powerful technology for technology’s
sake. Our focus is always to make it simple.”
To that end, apart from sparing you the need
to focus—which allows you to take rapid-fire
shots—the Lytro also lets you instantly tag
a photo as a favorite right in the camera, so
you don’t have to sort through your Facebook
shares a er uploading.
This year Lytro’s technology is in just one
camera. However, since most of the company’s
innovation lies in its so ware and powerful
miniaturized sensor, we can see where this
is heading: into other cameras, and even
into cellphones, which heretofore have been
plagued by slow shu er speeds. The Lytro
can’t shoot video—but don’t expect the revolu-
tion to skip camcorders, since the technology
is applicable to video, too. “It really is camera
3.0,” says Ng.
REN NG
/
AGE
35 /
FROM
MALAYSIA AND AUSTRALIA /
LIVES IN
REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. /
PREVIOUS GIG
DOCTORAL STUDENT, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
/
JANUARY 2012
MATHEW SCOTT
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