Stanford 'Frankencamera' Platform Available on Nokia N900 Smartphone

Stanford University has released Frankencamera, an open source digital photography software platform that enables users to create imaging applications for use on Nokia N900 mobile computers. Stanford professor Marc Levoy says Frankencamera brings computational photography directly to the camera by making it a programmable platform. Levoy developed Frankencamera with Nokia Research Center's Kari Pulli.

"The N900 is a camera phone, but it runs a version of Linux almost as complete as that installed on personal computers," Pulli says. "What we're hoping is that if making your camera programmable adds value to the camera that this could shift the entire camera industry."

The researchers have received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to use the Frankencamera platform to make single-lens reflex cameras for use by computational photography professors. Levoy says those cameras should be available within a year.

View a video of the Professor Levoy and students discussing the open camera.

Meanwhile, the researchers will demonstrate Frankencamera at the upcoming SIGGRAPH conference, and discuss six apps that were created on the platform.

From Stanford News
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