Would You Swap Your Camera for These Bendable Sheets?

http://www.pcmag.com …84631F747782F5F​EB3F32ADB3

Researchers at Columbia University have developed a new camera concept that could dramatically change how you snap pictures. The technology uses a flexible sheet as the camera. These sheets can bend and bow in different directions and along the way, create unique images that cannot be captured with standard cameras.

Interesting. Definitely wouldn't give up my DSLR (I love the form factor), but this could have some intriguing applications. Still seems a bit weird/odd to me though, but what new, concept technology isn't in the beginning, lol.

I wouldn't but I can see how this technology can be used to finally bring about the 'tapeworm' surveilance devices Michael O'Brien describes in his novel Voyage to Alpha Centauri, "like semitransparent insects, about one inch long. They fly around your home. They fly around everywhere as a matter of fact... head is a vidcam nodule; the thorax is the transmitter".

Reading that I was wondering how on Earth one could mount a lens onto such a thing. Well, now I know.

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I don't see where optics come into play. I mean, if the only way you can capture something the way you want to is to use a 500mm lens, then how can these bendable sheets be used to give you the same field of view? Unless there is a whole lot to this new technology that the article did not mention, the whole idea kinda seems like a sensor without an optical lens. I am not seeing an advantage to that for any of the kinds of photos I want to take.

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It's an interesting concept, and I'm sure it would certainly have some applications.

But I can't foresee ever using one...

In a heart beat.

"The idea is to snag images from different angles and perspectives. As the researchers note, existing cameras come only with the ability to "capture the world from a single point in space," so they tried adding a slew of camera sensors into a bendable sheet"

Interesting because capturing a particular perspective is one of the things that interests me most about photography. The ability to see from someone else's perspective.

No, I would not swap but would welcome a play date.

no.