Sharp Announces 3D Camera For Mobile Phones

The HD system uses two small lenses that can simultaneously capture separate images to create synchronized, 720p video images.

Source

Sharp Corp. said Wednesday it is planning to begin production on the world’s first three-dimensional camera system for mobile phones and other portable devices by the end of the year.

The consumer electronics leader said in a statement that the module will be capable of capturing high-definition (720p) video images. The system uses two small lenses that can simultaneously capture separate images for the left and right eyes to create synchronized, 3D pictures, said Miyuki Nakayama, a Sharp spokeswoman. The company said it has used high-density mounting technology to keep the size down. Other functions to process the image data output by the left and right cameras include color synchronizing processing to adjust color and brightness; timing synchronizing processing to synchronize the timing of the video signals; and optical axis control processing to correct positioning.

Finally...picture depth. Rejoice all you UFO Photographers. Yeah it will still be a cell phone pic, but now we'll be able to tell the depth and maybe get a little more idea of the distance of said objects in pictures taken from this camera.

If this tech is being released for cell phone pics then camera manufacturers won't be too far behind with ones that work. Most of what I've heard of these cameras in their early stages aren't all that great. Technology is always getting better though. Of course so is image editing software so the battle wages on.