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Scientists launch open source camera which runs on Linux
By siliconindia
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Monday, 07 September 2009, 22:58 IST
Bangalore: Photo scientists at Stanford University's Computer Graphics Laboratory have created a camera which is dubbed as the world's first open source camera. This open source camera is called Frankencamera, (named after Frankenstein as this camera looks ugly) and has Nokia N95 mobile phone camera module, a circuit board, a couple of lenses from Canon and to top it all, it uses Linux.
The prototype is made from off-the-shelf parts and in some cases these parts are borrowed from dead cameras. The creators of this camera have used Linux as an operating system as it will allow programmers to create algorithms to process images differently or may be even better than what brands such as Canon and Nikon are currently offering. Programmers will also have a wide range of customization options.
So far, the scientists have tweaked the Frankencamera to snap high dynamic range pictures but they are trying to produce better-quality videos by using high-resolution pictures. The creators of this camera are hoping to distribute the platform at minimal cost in one year's time to computational photography researchers and courses worldwide.
