????照相機(jī)市場(chǎng)出現(xiàn)黑馬：Lytro公司,。這家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司位于美國(guó)加利福尼亞州的山景城,，僅有45名員工。該公司計(jì)劃推出一款革命性的相機(jī),，用戶可以在拍攝之后重新對(duì)圖片進(jìn)行聚焦,，這一新技術(shù)有望給整個(gè)行業(yè)帶來巨大影響。

????這家一向韜光養(yǎng)晦的小公司終于破壁而出,，于本周早些時(shí)候公布了其總體發(fā)展規(guī)劃，正式向相機(jī)業(yè)巨掣佳能公司（Canon）和尼康公司（Nikon）發(fā)起了挑戰(zhàn),。Lytro公司透露,，其新款“光場(chǎng)”相機(jī)（light field）采用特殊的傳感器，可以記錄每一束光線的顏色,、強(qiáng)度和方向,，因此，與普通數(shù)碼相機(jī)相比,，該相機(jī)可以捕捉更多數(shù)據(jù),。而所捕捉的所有信息將被存儲(chǔ)在每個(gè)圖片文件中，用戶可以用前所未有的方式編輯和處理照片——包括在拍攝之后將照片重新聚焦,，以及修改拍攝角度等,。此外，該款相機(jī)即使在弱光條件下也無需使用閃光燈即可正常拍攝,。

????我曾有幸親眼見證了Lytro相機(jī)的編輯功能,，可以說，它遠(yuǎn)比目前市場(chǎng)上的任何相機(jī)和圖片編輯軟都更出色,、更酷,。毫無疑問，該公司的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新很可能是相機(jī)行業(yè)突破性的變革——也許無法與相機(jī)的數(shù)碼化相提并論,，但無疑意義重大,。

????但Lytro公司并不打算把它的技術(shù)授權(quán)給現(xiàn)有的相機(jī)制造商，至少目前還沒有這樣的計(jì)劃（Lytro公司創(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官吳義仁表示“不會(huì)說得過于絕對(duì)”）。這家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司計(jì)劃在今年晚些時(shí)候推出自主品牌的Lytro相機(jī),，因?yàn)樗麄冏孕拧澳茏龅酶?。”但是,，嘗試過進(jìn)入消費(fèi)電子領(lǐng)域的小公司都知道,，要搶占那些“龐然大物”的地盤絕非易事。

????公司CEO吳義仁表示,，與幾年前相比,，現(xiàn)在成立一家相機(jī)公司要容易得多。Lytro相機(jī)將由一家臺(tái)灣公司負(fù)責(zé)生產(chǎn),，并主要通過網(wǎng)絡(luò)進(jìn)行銷售,，渠道包括Facebook和其他一些網(wǎng)站。然而,，除了早期使用者,、技術(shù)人員和攝影發(fā)燒友之外，要讓其他人接受這款相機(jī)還較為困難,。Lytro公司目前尚未公布相機(jī)的價(jià)格,，但價(jià)格同樣是個(gè)關(guān)鍵。畢竟,，普通攝影愛好者不可能花大價(jià)錢購(gòu)買一款商品化的硬件設(shè)備,，不管其功能多么強(qiáng)大。

????Lytro公司要想單干,，還有另外一個(gè)攔路虎——手機(jī),。越來越多的人開始放棄專用相機(jī)，轉(zhuǎn)而用移動(dòng)設(shè)備拍攝照片,。所以,，對(duì)于Lytro公司而言，更明智的做法是將技術(shù)授權(quán)給現(xiàn)有的手機(jī)制造商,，而不是一頭扎進(jìn)另外一個(gè)商品化的消費(fèi)電子市場(chǎng),，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)行業(yè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)更加激烈，并且已經(jīng)飽和,。

????Lytro公司的光場(chǎng)技術(shù)前景廣闊,。該技術(shù)最早出現(xiàn)于二十世紀(jì)九十年代中期的斯坦福大學(xué)（Stanford University），當(dāng)時(shí)還是一個(gè)研究課題,。截至目前,，要捕捉一個(gè)場(chǎng)景中各個(gè)方向的所有光線，需要數(shù)百臺(tái)連接到計(jì)算機(jī)的相機(jī)同時(shí)工作,。2006年,，吳義仁關(guān)于光場(chǎng)成像技術(shù)的博士論文獲得了斯坦福大學(xué)計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)最佳博士論文獎(jiǎng),。而近幾年，他一直致力于縮小公司識(shí)別傳感器的尺寸,，以便進(jìn)行批量生產(chǎn),。

????但即便是本?霍洛維茨也認(rèn)為，開發(fā)捕捉光場(chǎng)的傳感器或許并沒有那么難,?；袈寰S茨是安德森?霍洛維茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人，同時(shí)也是Lytro公司投資人,。

????霍洛維茨在周二發(fā)表的一篇博客中寫道：“或許最困難的任務(wù),，是設(shè)計(jì)一款軟件，可以從光場(chǎng)中生成一張,，甚至成千上萬張美麗的圖片,。過去幾年，與手機(jī)的命運(yùn)相同,，相機(jī)也逐漸成為以軟件為主要賣點(diǎn)的產(chǎn)品,。過去5年，手機(jī)業(yè)發(fā)生了翻天覆地的變化,，而相機(jī)業(yè)也將涌現(xiàn)出擁有世界級(jí)軟件能力的新行業(yè)領(lǐng)袖,。”

????專注軟件——而不是硬件——這或許是Lytro公司應(yīng)該側(cè)重軟件/授權(quán)業(yè)務(wù)而遠(yuǎn)離消費(fèi)電子產(chǎn)品業(yè)務(wù)的另外一個(gè)理由。

????到目前為止,，關(guān)于新款相機(jī)的具體發(fā)布時(shí)間（吳義仁表示將在今年晚些時(shí)候）和銷售價(jià)格,，Lytro公司依然沒有給出明確的回應(yīng)。公司已經(jīng)獲得約5,，000萬美元投資，投資方包括安德森?霍洛維茨基金,、格雷洛克風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司（Greylock Partners）和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司K9 Ventures,，以及個(gè)人出資方，包括虛擬機(jī)軟件公司VMWare聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人黛安妮?格林和斯靈傳媒（Sling Media）聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人布萊克?克里科里安,。盡管尚未面世,，但Lytro的新型相機(jī)已在媒體引起轟動(dòng)。

????未來的Lytro相機(jī)是否會(huì)像佳能和尼康相機(jī)一樣,，最終變成大眾消費(fèi)品呢,？這一點(diǎn)尚不確定；不過,，我想它（非?？幔┑暮诵募夹g(shù)肯定會(huì)得到普及。

????There's a new player in the camera market: Lytro, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup with just 45 employees, is hoping to disrupt the industry with an innovative camera that lets users focus a picture after it's been taken.

????The tiny company came out of stealth mode earlier this week, unveiling its master plan to take on heavyweights like Canon and Nikon. According to Lytro, its new "light field" cameras will capture more data than your average digital camera by using a special sensor that records the color, intensity and direction of every beam of light. Because all of this extra information is saved in each image file, users will be able to edit and play with their photos in new ways -- including refocusing a picture and changing its orientation after it's been taken. They'll also be able to take photos in low light conditions without using flash.

????After seeing Lytro's editing capabilities in action, I can tell you it's much, much cooler than anything current cameras and image editing software will let you do. And yes, the company's technology even has the potential to become a breakthrough innovation in the camera industry -- not on par with the move to digital but significant nonetheless.

????But Lytro isn't planning on licensing its technology to existing camera makers, at least not anytime soon (founder and CEO Ren Ng says "never say never"). The startup is planning on coming out with its own Lytro-branded camera later this year because it believes "we can do it better." But as any other small company that has tried cracking the consumer electronics industry knows, going up against the giants will be anything but easy.

????CEO Ng says it's much easier launching a camera company today than it would have been just a few years ago. A Taiwanese company will manufacture Lytro's cameras, which will be sold through online retailers and marketed on Facebook and other websites. Still, getting the word out beyond the early adopters, techies and photography fanatics could prove tricky. Pricing -- which Lytro has yet to announce -- will also be key, because it's unlikely your average picture-taker will pay a big premium for a commoditized piece of hardware, no matter how cool its features.

????And here's another possible hurdle for Lytro's plan to go at it alone -- cell phones. More and more people are ditching dedicated cameras and snapping pictures with their mobile device. So it would make sense for Lytro to someday license its technology to existing cell phone makers instead of jumping into yet another cutthroat, saturated and commoditized consumer electronics market.

????Lytro's light field technology is promising, and it's come a long way since its roots in a Stanford University lab, where it started out as a research project in the mid-1990s. Up until recently, capturing all of the light traveling in every direction in a particular scene required hundreds of cameras tied to a series of computers. But Ng, whose research in light field photography won best PhD dissertation in computer science at Stanford back in 2006, has spent the last few years getting the company's signature sensors small enough for mass production.

????But even Ben Horowitz, one-half of Andreessen Horowitz and a Lytro investor, says developing the sensor that captures the light field may have been the easy part.

????"Building software that generates a beautiful picture, or thousands of different beautiful pictures, from the light field may be the most difficult task," Horowitz wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "As cameras become primarily software products in the same way that phones became primarily software products over the past several years, new industry leaders with world-class software capabilities will emerge in the same way that the phone industry has turned upside down over the past 5 years."

????This focus on software -- not hardware -- is another reason Lytro might want to skew towards the software/licensing business and away from consumer electronics.

????For now, the company is remaining mum on exactly when its new cameras will launch (Ng says it will happen later this year) or how much they will cost. To date, the company has raised about $50 million from an impressive list of investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and K9 Ventures and individual funders like VMWare cofounder Diane Greene and Sling Media cofounder Blake Krikorian. And its launch is already making a big splash in the media.

????So will Lytro's cameras someday be as commonplace as Canons and Nikons? Doubtful, though I'm guessing its (very cool) underlying technology will.