Experimental Platform

Abstract

Computational photography refers broadly to sensing strategies and algorithmic techniques that enhance or extend the capabilities of digital photography. Although interest in computational photography has steadily increased among graphics and vision researchers, progress has been hampered by the lack of a portable, programmable camera platform with enough image quality and computing power to be used for everyday photography. To address this problem, the Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory has designed an open architecture for programmable cameras. Our architecture (called Frankencamera) consists of a hardware specification, a software stack based on Linux, and an API (called FCam) with bindings for C++. To demonstrate the viability of this architecture, we’ve built two reference implementations: a Nokia N900 smartphone with a modified software stack and a custom camera called the Frankencamera F2. Our goal is to standardize the architecture and distribute Frankencameras to researchers and students worldwide, as a step towards creating a community of photographer-programmers who develop algorithms, applications, and hardware for computational cameras.