For anyone who has ever wondered how cameras work, this book is a pleasant way to learn. It is generously endowed with enough fundamentals to satisfy the technical specialist, without intimidating the casual but curious amateur photographer. The author has repaired, modified, and designed and analyzed cameras for the past forty five years. With this background, he goes beyond describing camera functions based on advertised data, instead the book explains how various cameras really work. The book peels off the cover panels and lets you look into the dark side of the lens. The dozen or so formulas use simple math and the drawings alone are worth the price of admission. Describes how cameras work and how well they overcome the difficulties in making a technically perfect photo Covers causes of image faults Presents unique methods for testing cameras Covers integration of optics, electronics, and mechanics in contemporary cameras

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the key technologies and applications related to new cameras that have brought 3D data acquisition to the mass market. It covers both the theoretical principles behind the acquisition devices and the practical implementation aspects of the computer vision algorithms needed for the various applications. Real data examples are used in order to show the performances of the various algorithms. The performance and limitations of the depth camera technology are explored, along with an extensive review of the most effective methods for addressing challenges in common applications. Applications covered in specific detail include scene segmentation, 3D scene reconstruction, human pose estimation and tracking and gesture recognition. This book offers students, practitioners and researchers the tools necessary to explore the potential uses of depth data in light of the expanding number of devices available for sale. It explores the impact of these devices on the rapidly growing field of depth-based computer vision.

Looking beyond the impact photographs have on the perpetuation and expression of social norms and stereotypes, and the influence of the act of taking a photograph, this new collection brings together international scholars to examine the camera itself as an actor. Bringing the camera back into view, this volume furthers our understanding of how, and in what ways, imaging technology shapes us, our lives, and the representations out of which we fashion knowledge, base our judgments and ultimately act. Through a broad range of case studies, the authors in this collection make the convincing claim that the camera is much more than a mechanical device brought to life by the photographer. This book will be of interest to scholars in photography, visual culture, anthropology and the history of photography.

Digital airborne cameras are now penetrating the fields of photogrammetry and remote sensing. Due to the last decade’s results in research and development in the fields of for instance detector technology, computing power, memory capacity position and orientation measurement it is now possible to generate with this new generation of airborne cameras different sets of geometric and spectral data with high geometric and radiometric resolutions within a single flight. This is a decisive advantage as compared to film based airborne cameras. The linear characteristic of the opto-electronic converters is the basis for the transition from an imaging camera to an images generating measuring instrument. Because of the direct digital processing chain from the airborne camera to the data products there is no need for the processes of chemical film development and digitising the film information. Failure sources as well as investments and staff costs are avoided. But the effective use of this new technology requires the knowledge of the features of the image and information generation, its possibilities and its restrictions. This book describes all components of a digital airborne camera from the object to be imaged to the mass memory device. So the image quality influencing processes in nature are described, as for instance the reflection of the electromagnetic sun spectrum at the objects to be imaged and the influence of the atmosphere. Also, the essential features of the new digital sensor system, their characteristics and parameters, are addressed and put into the system context. The complexity of the cooperation of all camera components, as for instance optics, filters, detector elements, analogue and digital electronics, software and so forth, becomes transparent. The book includes also the description of example systems.

This is a working camera that pops up from the pages of a book..The book concisely explains--and actively demonstrates--how a structure as humble as a folded piece of paper can tap into the intrinsic properties of light to produce a photograph.The book includes:- a piece of paper folded into a working 4x5" camera- a lightproof bag- 5 sheets of photo-paper "film"- development instructions (from complete DIY to "outsource it")- a foil-stamped cover- a satisfying demonstration of the connection between design & science / structures & functions

Assesses the influence of worldwide media coverage on political decisions, and discusses how the political process adapts to new technologies

"Recycled objects transformed into working cameras, each paired with its symbiotic photograph. A battered suitcase photographs an old motel. A gas can peers up at abandoned filling station pumps. A shinola tin observes its polished boot. A VW van snares roadside attractions. This collection documents 25 years of pinhole and simple-lens tinkering and innovation by Jo Babcock"--Http://www.jobabcock.com/book.htm.

In An Engine, Not a Camera, Donald MacKenzie argues that the emergence of modern economic theories of finance affected financial markets in fundamental ways. These new, Nobel Prize-winning theories, based on elegant mathematical models of markets, were not simply external analyses but intrinsic parts of economic processes. Paraphrasing Milton Friedman, MacKenzie says that economic models are an engine of inquiry rather than a camera to reproduce empirical facts. More than that, the emergence of an authoritative theory of financial markets altered those markets fundamentally. For example, in 1970, there was almost no trading in financial derivatives such as "futures." By June of 2004, derivatives contracts totaling $273 trillion were outstanding worldwide. MacKenzie suggests that this growth could never have happened without the development of theories that gave derivatives legitimacy and explained their complexities. MacKenzie examines the role played by finance theory in the two most serious crises to hit the world's financial markets in recent years: the stock market crash of 1987 and the market turmoil that engulfed the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. He also looks at finance theory that is somewhat beyond the mainstream—chaos theorist Benoit Mandelbrot's model of "wild" randomness. MacKenzie's pioneering work in the social studies of finance will interest anyone who wants to understand how America's financial markets have grown into their current form.

Art historians have long speculated on how Vermeer achieved the uncanny mixture of detached precision, compositional repose, and perspective accuracy that have drawn many to describe his work as "photographic." Indeed, many wonder if Vermeer employed a camera obscura, a primitive form of camera, to enhance his realistic effects? In Vermeer's Camera, Philip Steadman traces the development of the camera obscura--first described by Leonaro da Vinci--weighs the arguments that scholars have made for and against Vermeer's use of the camera, and offers a fascinating examination of the paintings themselves and what they alone can tell us of Vermeer's technique. Vermeer left no record of his method and indeed we know almost nothing of the man nor of how he worked. But by a close and illuminating study of the paintings Steadman concludes that Vermeer did use the camera obscura and shows how the inherent defects in this primitive device enabled Vermeer to achieve some remarkable effects--the slight blurring of image, the absence of sharp lines, the peculiar illusion not of closeness but of distance in the domestic scenes. Steadman argues that the use of the camera also explains some previously unexplainable qualities of Vermeer's art, such as the absence of conventional drawing, the pattern of underpainting in areas of pure tone, the pervasive feeling of reticence that suffuses his canvases, and the almost magical sense that Vermeer is painting not objects but light itself. Drawing on a wealth of Vermeer research and displaying an extraordinary sensitivity to the subtleties of the work itself, Philip Steadman offers in Vermeer's Camera a fresh perspective on some of the most enchanting paintings ever created.

The essential guide to the entire process behind performing a complete characterization and benchmarking of cameras through image quality analysis Camera Image Quality Benchmarking contains the basic information and approaches for the use of subjectively correlated image quality metrics and outlines a framework for camera benchmarking. The authors show how to quantitatively compare image quality of cameras used for consumer photography. This book helps to fill a void in the literature by detailing the types of objective and subjective metrics that are fundamental to benchmarking still and video imaging devices. Specifically, the book provides an explanation of individual image quality attributes and how they manifest themselves to camera components and explores the key photographic still and video image quality metrics. The text also includes illustrative examples of benchmarking methods so that the practitioner can design a methodology appropriate to the photographic usage in consideration. The authors outline the various techniques used to correlate the measurement results from the objective methods with subjective results. The text also contains a detailed description on how to set up an image quality characterization lab, with examples where the methodological benchmarking approach described has been implemented successfully. This vital resource: Explains in detail the entire process behind performing a complete characterization and benchmarking of cameras through image quality analysis Provides best practice measurement protocols and methodologies, so readers can develop and define their own camera benchmarking system to industry standards Includes many photographic images and diagrammatical illustrations to clearly convey image quality concepts Champions benchmarking approaches that value the importance of perceptually correlated image quality metrics Written for image scientists, engineers, or managers involved in image quality and evaluating camera performance, Camera Image Quality Benchmarking combines knowledge from many different engineering fields, correlating objective (perception-independent) image quality with subjective (perception-dependent) image quality metrics.