What if each pixel on a chip had a laser that recorded depth information? Forget keying, with that kind of information, you could key out distances instead of colors, or create a 3d model of the shot. If only.

In the year 2000.

Stephen

Interesting idea! Not sure how doable this is though... <g>

Actually, I found out, its a technology already in use. Its called Ladar. Its not exactly what I came up with, but close. It uses lasers to get depth and color/lumanence information. Pretty interesting stuff. do a google search for ladar/lidar.

stephen

My father works extensively with LIDAR. It's some pretty interesting stuff but it would be insane to try to use it in video form! I'm sure it could be done but you would need a pretty powerful laser - something you wouldn't want to point at an actor for instance!