Lytro's saving grace

What is Lytro?  I pondered a few years ago when Lytro came into existence.  They had amazing technology albeit it was not very useful or competitive against the current still cameras.  I wondered where Lytro would end up.

Yesterday, Lytro announced Immerge, its latest creation. With Immerge, Lytro seems to have found its sweet spot and saving grace. 

Immerge is a professional grade cinematic virtual reality video camera.  It offers 6 degrees of freedom which suits it very well for VR.  It also allows one to mix CG into the footage.  This is where Lytro's light field technology can truly shine.  It can capture light volumes and play back based on where the viewer is looking.  Imagine wearing a VR headgear and viewing a scene shot on Immerge.  As you glance around using its 6 DoF, and as you look at objects, the scene could refocus based on the light field technology.  It could simulate a human eye looking around in a scene bringing the scene eerily close to reality.

With Immerge, Lytro is also moving away from consumer market and into the professional market.  Lytro is not just selling this camera, they are selling an end-to-end solution with a server, post-processing tools, a player as well as a streaming server.  This will allow them to own and control the entire ecosystem.  They have also mentioned support for all available and future VR headsets and players. 

This is an amazing opportunity for Lytro to make a mark in the VR world as it matures. 

Photo credit: Lytro.com

Drone attack!

Recently I was in Ireland and I visited the Blarney's castle.  Here is an aerial view of the castle from a magazine ad.

Here is another picture I took from the ground.

Not very flattering, huh?

One of the reasons aerial photography (short range) is going to become popular is due to this discrepancy.  It allows for one to be creative.  It is not as simple as just whipping out your camera or phone and clicking a button.  It is much more than that.  It is commanding a small camera fitted on a drone and piloting it (or instructing it) to shoot pics from a different vantage point.  It is exciting and the opportunities to be creative are boundless.  I was cursing myself for not bringing my drone along. 

That is when I saw this sign on the Blarney Castle grounds.

Bummer.

There are many reasons to ban drones from historical sites:
- Protect the monument or the historical artifact from being damaged by crashing aerial vehicles
- Protect the unobstructed visual beauty.  This does not really hold ground, since people walking around the site are already obstructing the visual beauty
- Protect the monument from the trash of dead aerial cameras perched on inaccessible locations such as the ledge in the picture below (which I shot from the top of the tower and not a drone).  We have all seen trash strewn on historical or natural monuments that is hard to clear
- Copyrighting the aerial view of the site.  This may not hold much ground when photography in general is allowed

It looks like this is going to become the norm in all the tourist locations from now on.  That is until the aerial cameras become smart enough to avoid obstructions and not get lost.  There are several manufacturers already on this path.  We will shortly start seeing aerial cameras that are capable of following a pre-set path, capable of avoiding stationary as well as moving objects, capable of returning home before losing complete control and being small enough to be carried by a photography enthusiast.