Synthetic aperture confocal imaging
September 2, 2008
What a mouthful, eh
? But that’s the name of a process outlined in a 2004 Stanford University paper: synthetic aperture confocal imaging.
Basically, it’s an attempt to adapt confocal microscopy methods (which are used to produce 3D images of specimens) to the task of taking images of objects through “partially occluded environments”. Or, to put that into slightly more normal-sounding terms, it’s using a synthetically shallow depth of field, combined with variant lighting, to allow for images to be taken of objects that are partially obstructed from the camera’s view.
In other words: something only a Photography nerd could love.
