You can't really say it's the Sputnik (c.1955 from Russia) of the digital age:



But more the Instamatik 10 (c.1971 from Kodak) of the digital age:



One day the technology could be available to the point-and-shoot consumer in a decent-megapixel camera with a decent-sized viewing screen as a way to not have to focus. Or maybe you would just hold it up and shoot and then crop and focus sharpen later and not even have a screen to compose on (or viewfinder to look thru.) Now that's a true P&S!

But can you see any application now, Rick, with this odd-shaped thing for a lightweight hiker? Any idea what it will cost?

Perhaps it will be the new "digital" Holga (c.1981, from China), intended to provide an inexpensive mass-market camera for the working-class in order to record family portraits and events. We could make them in the US by the millions for the new Chinese burgeoning bourgeoisie.

The least we can do is take notice since Ren Ng, the CEO of Lytro, developed the technology at Stanford fairly recently and already has this first product ready for market. I wouldn't necessarily want to buy one -- but certainly would love to invest in some stock . . . ?