Computational Photography Comes into Focus

Over the last decade, digital cameras have radically refocused the way people capture and manipulate pictures. Today, the snap of a photo is merely a starting point for composing and manipulating an image. A photographer can make basic changes to a picture from within the camera, but also may use photoediting software on a computer to significantly alter the look, feel and composition. "We can use computation to make the process better, both aesthetically and in terms of greater flexibility," explains Frédo Durand, a professor in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT in Cambridge, MA. Researchers and engineers are now taking the concept further.