The nice thing about digital cameras is that photographers can finally delete out of focus photographs without having to pay for them to be printed. However, out of focus photographs are sometimes all one has if capturing a moment on the fly.

This sadly leaves only using Photoshop to render a blurry snapshot sharper in the hopes of preserving the image and the moment. Wouldn’t it be great if digital camera technology could advance to the point where out of focus photographs became extinct from the photographic process?

Well, perhaps that time has come. Engineers at Mitsubishi Electric have developed a special coded aperture that refocuses and image after it’s been taken. Calling it an “heterodyne light field camera,” the aperture increases depth of field by as much as 10 times, essentially deblurring a captured image.

This is an improvement over previous efforts that sought to refocus an image post-capture like software, but sadly degrades the picture quality greatly from its original resolution.

And there isn’t denying that the gang over at Mitsubishi may be onto something, check out this refocused image from the heterodyne light field camera:

Anyone who has a toddler will be lining up to buy this once it goes commercial. More info at Digital Camera errrr info.