FLEXIBLE SHEET CAMERA: Computer Vision Lab at Columbia Engineering
Daniel Sims, Yonghao Yue and Shree K. Nayar of the Computer Vision Laboratory have developed a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with conventional cameras. The Columbia team designed and fabricated a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. This optical adaptation enables the sheet camera to produce high quality images over a wide range of sheet deformations. The new design could also lead to cameras the size of a credit card that a photographer could simply flex to control its field of view.