Photography has made countless technological leaps since George
Eastman drew up the patent for his innovative roll film
technology, and even since the first digital cameras hit the
market. But in large part, photogs have been tethered to the
innovations and technologies made and doled out by a handful of
companies. But Stanford computer science professor Marc Levoy
and graduate student Andrew Adams are looking to change that by
creating an open-source digital camera, dubbed "Frankencamera."
The pair hopes to release the camera's operating software to the
public within year, at which point any programmer will be able
to write apps controlling any element of the camera's
performance: focus, exposure, flash, shutter speed, aperture,
ISO, you name it, all freely downloadable and installable by
users of the device. Programmers will also be able to create
their own algorithms for processing images in new and
unprecedented ways. The exploration is already underway in the
lab, but a crowd-sourced effort could create