Lens/Software For Refocusing After the Fact: Will it fly, or is true 3D around the corner?

At first glance, this looks pretty awesome. Take a picture. Look at the result. Adjust the focus to a different part of the photo. But there's a catch of course. It's using a modified lens which allows the camera to record some degree of 3D information. So we're talking advanced camera processors (to handle the computations), new data formats for photos, and of course, new cameras. A business model that depends on moving new hardware into consumer cameras is a tough sell.

There seem to be a growing number of attempts to move photos into the 3D world (Make3D, Photosynth, Photo Pop-Up) . 3D manipulation is finally affordable to consumers (SpaceNavigator), and low-end game-tech is being repurposed to provide cheap head tracking capabilities (WiiRemote). With all these tools on the verge of being commercially available, and a wide number of popular 3D environments in which they could be used (ranging from games to virtual worlds), I wonder whether technologies like this refocus tool aren't going to be tossed aside for the real thing—true 3D imaging.

That said, their approach (and their patents) may well play a role. A modified lens that captures multiple images on the CCD is likely to be a much cheaper solution than using multiple lenses (although the binary separation might need to be software-enhanced). Camera resolutions are getting to the point where consumers don't see the point, but this would drive demand for higher resolutions, making the hardware folks happy. Embed the extra info in a standard JPEG and adoption would be even more likely. Old software sees 2D, new software sees 3D.