READING: Current Research in Digital Photography

Here's a brief NY Times article about some of the leading research in digital photography. Since the megapixel race for large sensors appears to be over, most of the effort is on the processing side, which is called computational photography.

For example, there are efforts at MIT using laser pulses to calculate, model and record the 3d geometry of subjects like a room. Stanford is working on processing multiple images and "re-focusing" the still image after it has been recorded.

Another direction for researchers is the open source software model so that any software developer can use and contribute applications which control the camera's functions. Using open source software, a student programmer at Stanford has developed an application which can direct you to the exact location, position, and angle that was used for a given photo.