New Panasonic Sensor Captures 3D with Just One Lens

In order to actually capture and/or record live 3D photos and video, it usually takes several lenses and very special image sensors.

Panasonic may have finally cracked the mystery of single-lens 3D recording.

The company came up with the idea of using lenticular lenses and a layer composed of digital micro lenses.

With those focusing the light hitting the sensor, the system could give any camera 3D capabilities.

Some post-processing is involved in the procedure, and the depth calculated by its algorithms and the actual depth of objects in the scene only differs by about 5%. Further improvements are expected too.

Long story short, by the time 2014 rolls around, everything from low-end, cheap cameras to high-end video systems could have 3D support.

More coverage can be found on the original report (Tech-on!).