Convert Electronic signature Form Android

[1] PDF format is popularly known as print document format. This creates a virtual printer within operating system to print the document. For offline scanning of document, the PDF format is popular. The importance attached with these program is that you need to have PDFsoftware installed to run these files. If someone sends you PDF file and your computer do not have such software installed then that file is not to be read from there.There are so many PDF softwires available and this article aims to find out the mostly free software or freeware to help readers to choose from variety of options. More and more operating systems are providing built-in facilities for such products. Now-a-days everything comes with PDF formats beginning from circulars, bank statement, insurance statement, tax statement and e-books.That is why there immense important to have the free PDF software installed on computer but the thousand question is which one is to choose from the variety of resources available.Sumatra PDF:Sumatra PDF is available for download to Windows since the times of Windows XP. This program has very low foot print, light on system resources and fast. It is going to perform simple task as well as it is going to perform complex task depending upon you choose from PDFfiles. It is available with installed version as well as standalone portable version in which it does not write to registry.It is available in 64 bit version on Windows. It is available for Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. It is available for Windows operating system only.signNow Reader DC:It is from signNow and signNow is available for free for users. While installing this software do check for installation of MCAfee security and safe connect.it is a big download of nearing to 120 MB. Yours antivirus software might stop this installation so allow to install it. This software for high=end computing processes.Many features are included with it and for some features you might need it and if you want to have these features then it is better to choose this software. It has mobile version of android and apple operating system. With it you are going to synchronize documents with clouds and yours signature too and everything is going to stay with cloud to access from each and every device.When you first download signNow on Windows, a download manager first downloads and it is small in size and then by opening that download manager signNow software is installed and this is nearer to 120 MB.PDF-Xchange Editor:PDF-Xchange Editor is a smart PDF tools and most functions are free except some complex ones. It is a PDF reader, pdf editor and pdf tools. It can print PDFs, fill the forms created with signNow and can extract images from PDF files. There are some advanced features included in this free version but most of these are not free one is that watermarking of PDFsoftware which is not free.Foxit Reader:Foxit Reader is fast, simple and is there for years. It is available for Windows, Apple and android versions. It can fill forms and save data. Can include and validate electronic signatures. During installation user need to be cautioned not to install so many verities of other software. In order to keep the size of download minimal, the user manual is available for separate download.It is faster than PDF-Xchange Editor. If you are not interested in OCR facilities then Foxit reader is best suited for yours work. Multiple PDF documents when opened all these are opened in tab format and shifting from one tab to the other is easier. From time to time it introduces some new features in order to provide dynamic software development.It allows adding up of multimedia files easier. Collaboration with social media accounts becomes easier with Fixit Reader because of the ease to synchronize with Twitter, Facebook, Evernote and SharePoint. One caution is that Foxit Reader comes bundled with so many other software and toolbar and it is important to not to allow installations of such software during its installation.MuPDF Reader:It is very lightweight PDF Reader. On its first launch it will ask you about to choose from files instead of showing its interface and when the PDF is opened then it shows the exact documents and no toolbar and other interfaces are present. In order to see the interface of MuPDF reader you are going to click on the top left of the visible windows to find it. It provides a cleaner interface and superior look for PDF files.Google Chrome PDF viewer:While browsing for internet whenever you see any PDF and click on it and it will slowly open in another tab of Chrome and you can read it from there or download by clicking the downloadsymbol available there. This setting can be turned and changed out there easily, go to settings of chrome and then advanced and then content settings and then pdf documents, Scroll down and click on PDF documents and from there switch on ‘Download PDF files instead of opening automatically opening them in Chrome’ and this will download PDF files from net to computer.If you want to read PDF files that are stored inside computer, then right click on that files and then open with chrome and your chrome reader will automatically, open pdf files and for this you will not have to install pdf viewers. Similarly, with android if you install Google Drive then you will not need any other third-party PDF apps as Google Drive act as PDF viewer and make it default while opening the first PDF and that is going to make it default.TinyPDF:TinyPDF as the name suggests has very small foot print of PDF reader and it has no string attached. It is only 586k as it is less than one MB. It does not contain no malware, adware, watermarks and no pop Global Home: UPS is completely free. JPEG compression is supported. No ghost script and third-party software included with the installer version. The downside is that it is partially supported on 64-bit computer. Automatic font management is there.There are so many alternatives to use for PDF viewer and if your computer is 64 bit then you can download the 64 bit version of Sumatra PDF and if you want to insert electronic signature then opt for Foxit PDF reader and if you want to have the old and classic PDF reader which is heavier in file composition and not for low end computing purposes then go for signNow and lastly if you do not want to install PDF readers at all then it is better to open it with Google Chrome built in PDF viewer.So, there are many large numbers of option to choose from and if you want to have some complex PDF functions besides the presence of PDF reader you need pdf tools and others then it is best to have PDF-Xchange viewer and so many other option listed here you can choose it from. There are some other alternatives are available which are there to search ad find in internet.This entry was posted in Android Apps on Google Play, Apple Inc., Computer Information Technology, Google, Google Chrome, Information Technology, Internet, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows XP and tagged signNow, Apple, doPDF, FOXIT READER, free PDF converter, google chrome, image to pdf converter, PDF Password Remover, pdf printer, pdf-xchange, Sumatra PDF A PDF Viewer for Windows, WINDOWS, Windows 8, WINDOWS VISTA, WINDOWS XP, Windows XP SP3 onFootnotes[1] Best Free PDF Writer and Reader

Edit: I wrote this answer for “must have Android apps” but these are same apps which have changed the way I used to live my life. Each and every App has helped me in one or the other way. I hope you will also find them helpful and a bit life changing. So here is the list: 10. Psiphon For those who use WiFi with proxy settings. So Psiphon bypasses and tunnel the websites or app through a different IP Address. 9. Mirror It's a simple app to record your mobile screen. Based on the concept of CamStudio in PC where you can record your screen, Mirror offers recording of your Mobile screen. 8. NTES- National Train Enquiry System If you are from India and you want to know the running status, cancelled train (partial or fully), Live Station and other features, this App is a must have. 7. VOLT Simple but effective for those who want to learn new vocabulary. That's too obvious, then why not others? Coz here you get the “memory key” which helps you relate the words and easier to remember them. 6. Parchi It a note making app. But here’s a catch. You can view, review, edit and add right from your lockscreen without need to open the app. Isn't that amazing! I personally find this app very useful. 5. edX If you are student or a learner who wants learn something new everyday, and cannot afford to go in the prestigious institutions like MIT, Harvard University, Cambridge, IITM, etc ten it is a must have app. Enroll yourself in any course and Bazinga!! You are ready to learn from the most amazing professors. Similar to edX, we have Coursera. 4. Walnut Manage your expenses on your finger tips. Its easier then that. It shows you your monthly expenditure, ATM locations, bill remainders and many more features. Its a must have app. 3. CamScanner Everyone doesn’t own a scanner but most of us have camera. So click the pic, upload to CamScanner and voila you are done. You have the scanned copy of your documents, notes, Marksheet and upload them on your DigiLocker. 2. inshorts Till now you all must be knowing this app. The tagline is also simple “News in 60 words” and trust me it is worth having. In this “I don't have time” world, you need news to be fast and accurate so here it is. 1. DigiLocker If you have this app then you don’t need to carry your personal documents like driving license, Adhar card, voter ID card, or even your Marksheets. Keep them safe in actual locker and leave the rest to your DigiLocker. And the best part is that it is acceptable as the original ones at every governmental or non governmental institution because it is developed under Digital India initiative. That's it for the day. Thank you and Enjoy !!! Update 1: Today I came across two new apps which I found useful. Hope it would help you all. 1.Forest : Stay focused Features • A self-motivated and interesting way to help you beat phone addiction • Stay focused and get more things done • Share your forest and compete with friends • Track your history in a simple and pleasant way • Earn reward and unlock more tree species • Customize your whitelist : Leaving Forest and using apps in whitelist won’t kill your tree. 2. Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator is specifically useful for Indians who're committed for Swachh Bharat. Update 2: So I am back with yet another interesting app for you all. And trust me it is worth hanving. You are bored just go through it and kaboooom !!! You are into a black hole. Enjoy the ride. 3. Curiosity It is the latest app I installed but got addicted to it. It’s exactly works like its name, generates a curiosity which inturn increases your knowledge. It covers a large field of scope from Humanity to science to faith and many more. This app deserves more snapshots but why to increase the length of my answer. Comment below if you think the list should be updated? Thank you.

What is the best and unique feature of the gadget that you use? Thanks for the A2A! I'm so glad to be answering this.Till a couple of years back, I used to own a Nokia 3310.My dad had used it for about 5 years before giving it to me. He had got it as a free gift with his first bike. This was also my first phone. I used it for about 4 years. For the past couple of years, I've used 4 'smartphones'(including Samsung Galaxy Tab2 and IPhone 4S ), but I still love Nokia 3310!This was the time when I entered college(i.e. 11th standard). By college was 20km away from home, and I had to use public transport everyday. So my parents gave me this phone, as a ...

Mycelium Customer service number 1–800–298–9018 Mycelium Customer support number project by Megion Research & Development GmbH makes a number of products including the Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet, Entropy, Bitcoincard, Mycelium Gear (a payment gateway), ATMs, Local Trader, and Tabtrader. It is located in Vienna, Austria.The Mycelium Bitcoin Wallet is available for Android and for iOS. The source is available for review on GitHub. It has been awarded the prestigious "Best Mobile App" award by Bitcoin Block Explorer - Blockchain in 2014.[1]It is available in 12 languages, translated by volunteersBitcoin Wallet Features100% control over your private keys, they never leave your device unless you export themNo block chain download, install and run in secondsUltra fast connection to the Bitcoin network through our super nodes located in different data centersWatch-only addresses & private key import for secure cold-storage integrationEncrypted PDF backup and restore of single key accountsSend and receive by specifying an amount in Fiat and switch between fiat and BTC while entering the amountAddress book for commonly used addressesTransaction history with full transaction detailsImport private keys using SIPA, mini private key format (Casascius private keys) or xPriv from QR-codes or clipboardExport private keys as QR-codes, on clipboard, or as encrypted PDFsSecure your wallet with a PINCompatible with other bitcoin services through bitcoin: uri handlingCompatible with Orbot (socks setting) so you may connect via Tor even without rootingSupport for BIP38 KeysView your balance in 164 fiat currenciesIntegrated QR-code scannerFind other people to trade Bitcoins with the integrated Local TraderDirectly spend from paper wallets (single key, xPriv or master seed)Trezor enabled - directly spend from trezor-secured accounts.Mycelium Entropy compatible Shamir-Secret-Shared 2-out-of-3 keys spendingCompatible with other bitcoin services through bitcoin: uri handlingShare your bitcoin address using NFC, Twitter, Facebook, email and more.BIP70 payment request compatibleIntegration with service Cashila to send money via SEPA[3]Support for BitID AuthenticationDeterministic signatures for Bitcoin transactions (RFC6979)Local TraderMycelium Local Trader is a decentralized in-person exchange that is built right into the Mycelium bitcoin wallet. Because the coins are stored locally in your wallet, the Local Trader exchange never needs to hold any of your bitcoins or fiat. Local Trader servers only help arrange the trade between buyers and sellers, manage the transaction, and calculate reputation ratings based on the trades.BitcoincardBitcoincard is a stand-alone device that acts as an electronic wallet. It can be used to secure the wallet in a safe place (outside the computer, making it inaccessible to hackers). The goal is to create an infrastructure-independent, self-powered, ad-hoc network that could dynamically form wherever a sufficient number of nodes came together to support it. A prototype was presented in Q1 2015.[4]Mycelium EntropyMycelium Entropy is a small USB device that uses hardware based entropy to generate directly printable Bitcoin paper wallets, without the need for a PC. The project was successfully funded on Indiegogo[5].Mycelium GearMycelium Gear is designed to allow you to receive BTC from customers directly into your wallet controlled by you only. Mycelium Gear eliminates the notion of payouts - you get your BTC instantly. It's easy to integrate with your online store or website, with no special skills required. Optionally you can convert your BTC to fiat using the Cashila service.

Compared with the PDF document catalogs, e-catalog is more handy and effective, and more prevalent on the market. However, how to create a high-quality and efficient e-catalog to make you keep the pace with the time and stand out from your rivals? Therefore, a professional catalog creator is very signNow in your design. Meanwhile, with the popularity of Mac device, you should need to think about whether the catalog creator you choose can be available for the Mac. And, Here we provide for you business. You can use freely to improve your catalog into a higher level.prodalist is a professional PDF to flipbook creator that allows you to create different captivating interactive eBook with animated page-flipping effect including brochures, magazines, catalogs and so on. You just need to import your static PDF document in this amazing program, and a successful flipping catalog would be presented at you in minutes. Besides, with tons of features, prodalist enables you to add YouTube video, local video, audio, images links, text, and flash animation to enrich your flipbook, so that your work can be more vivid and lively.

I am not sure about future of IBM filenet eForm, but I guess they and some of the other market leader had failed to create a complete solution for eForm that’s why you can see it’s not yet popular into the market yet and paper forms and pdf forms are still in use.We still use papers even in the digital age. We still use paper in various processes like form filling, documents, and approval. Paper and printing cost is much higher and companies still doing this due to less explored possibility of paperless technologies or limitations of existing solutions.There is a small firm in India called “Swayam Tech Lab” who has started figuring out the answer for this question of how to eliminate papers completely in early 2017. And the answer they have give is Trexa. Trexa solving some of the biggest, nastiest problems our industries were facing due to lack of complete solution.We firmly believe that technology has potential to replace paper and save nature, while making processes more efficient then paperwork. Using the technology we see the future where the paper is obsoleted and we are helping in shaping that technology - says CEO of the companyTrexa is an enterprise solution that helps you convert paper forms, pdf forms and document processes paperless, efficient, and automated by making them digital. Deploy to internal teams or customers on the web or mobile and efficiently collect and analyze your data on an interactive dashboard.What makes it different from others market-leading solutions that it provides a complete solution to the bigger problems of adopting the digital solution for replacing the papers. While many of the eForm solutions on the market are disruptive and don’t account for different business needs, We have designed the complete platform for all the businesses from small scale to large scale.They have made the overall process very smooth from creating forms, distributing among teams and gathering data. Our powerful designer will enable the user to upload their existing paper form or pdf form, make it digital form using drag-and-drop interface and distribute it to teams. Empower mobile user to capture form data digitally from anywhere whether they are online or offline. We have fascinating mobile app for iOS and Android to easy the create, edit and submit documents from anywhere. All the data will be stored in the cloud and the intuitive dashboard will allow you to turn data into visual charts.There are many benefits to using Trexa electronic forms instead of paper-based forms or pdf forms. These benefits include the following:• Reduce errors, increase the accuracy of information and improve data quality through validations. • Reduce form filling time and provide ease of form filling• Avoid lost data• Speed up the internal work processes• Eliminate data entry re-typing• Reduce the costs associated with form printing and handling• Make documentation and information easier to share• Stored data can be used for further analysis• Integration with other systems• Save space on filing• Helps the environment by eliminating paper• Keep information more secure• Easy accessibility via web and mobile• Allows document sharing for editing or signature• Offline editing on mobile application• Advanced searched capabilities over the form data and Analytics• Document approval processMore and more businesses are streamlining their workflows by converting paper documents to digital documents. But when it comes to your company’s forms, not just any electronic forms solution will do. You need a solution that will retain the exact look and feel of your paper or pdf forms and contracts while enabling users to fill them from web or mobile and save to cloud, access them in anytime, and approve them. With Trexa eForms solution you can easily move paper-based processes to the Web and accelerate form filling process. Now your organization can expedite forms submission and cut the costs associated with managing paper at the same time.For more information please visit our website: TrexaView introduction YouTube

I am competent and efficient at “figuring out how to play popular songs by ear”. For many songs, one listen will do. For the rest, two or three is probably all I need to be able to sit in and play with a group, even taking the lead on iconic instrumental riffs specific to a song. Interested in hearing my approach? Good, let’s begin..Definitions for the purpose of my writing:“Popular Music” = Stuff that normal people *actually* listen to. Rock, Pop, Country etc.“Music Theory” = The information that allows you generalize the structure of a song as well as the chord progressions that inhabit it. Also allows you to play any type of chord on any of the 12 possible tonic notes, and understand how to use the major and minor scales as well as the blues/major/minor pentatonic scales and modes. ***Has NOTHING to do with sheet music. Stay away from it if you’re trying to become a competent musician of “popular music” (see above for definition).CHALLENGE: Listen to “this song” once. After that, you have 10 minutes before you will step onto a stage with a group and perform it in front of a live audience. You may not use tools or electronics or instruments or writing utensils to aid you in your preparation. GO!As I listen, this is the “map of the song” that I consciously develop in my mind:Tempo: Semi-upbeat, somewhere around the ~120 bpm range. 4/4 timeINTRO - [8 Bars / 6 4 1 5 ] + Lead LineVERSE 1 - [8 Bars / 4 1 6 5]VERSE 2CHORUS - [8 Bars / 6 4 1 5]BREAK - [4 Bars] + Lead LineVERSE 3CHORUSBRIDGE - [4 Bars / 4 6 5 (5)]x3CHORUSCHORUS - Lead LineNow I have to consciously ingrain the following details into my memory for recall:[[[ (i)V - V - Ch(b) - V - Ch - Bx3 - Chx2(+lead@end) | 6415 / 4165 / 465]]]^Understood as: Intro, 2 Verses, Ch(w/break after), Verse, Chorus, Bridge 3 times, 2 Choruses and the last one has a lead. Progressions: 6–4–1–5/4–1–6–5/4–6–5^^Understood as: Typical “pop song structure”— list of exceptions: intro (gotta play the lead line over that), two initial verses, and a break after the first chorus where I have to play a lead line again. Bridge is played 3 times. Lead line on last chorus. Choruses and Intro/Break have a 6415 progression, Verses have 4165, Bridge has 465.As soon as the song ends, my 10 minutes begins and I’ll spend most of it memorizing the details contained within the ” [[[ ]]] “ up there^. These are basically all I will need to perform the song flawlessly. The other thing I’ll need to ingrain in my mind is the “pattern” for the lead line so I don’t fumble with any notes when I go to play it at the very beginning of the song. I will do by this listening to the line in my head, probably humming it a few times to confirm my grasp of specific notes and converting my understanding of those sounds into scale degrees, which I will then finger in the key of C with my right hand on an “air piano” to make sure I will be good to fluently play it in a couple mins.After running over the [[[]]] details and confirming my grasp of the lead line in C, my 10 minutes will end and I’ll walk on the stage, look at a fellow musician and ask, “Hey, what key are we in? And what instrument am I playing?”.What a wonderful story! The musician (me) certainly turns around to his instrument and performs with minimal hiccups and nobody in the crowd even really noticed him or any of the other instrumentalists because they were consuming the “experience” of the show (largely focused on the lead singer) and he simply didn’t distract them from that experience. That means the musician successfully conquered this challenge and performed adequately enough that nobody could really notice he was unprepared..You’ve just had the pleasure of listening to a thought process which you may be able to follow but likely don’t understand fully. That is because there are several developed skills being used together to make all of this happen. I have learned a great deal about music and distilled many concepts into easily understandable and intuitive concepts which I can actually USE (you just witnessed it), and even better (lucky for you), TEACH. Thus, I can best serve you by explaining what all of that nonsense is above so you can learn how to do it too.Neither of us has the time to do this teaching/learning stuff inside of this Quora post so let me NOT waste our time by showing you what you need to learn and how you need to learn it so you can search the Internet for resources to accomplish these goals on your own time.Here goes:IMPORTANT SKILLSLearning How To Identify FormYou need to be able to listen to a song and understand how to identify these parts of a song: intro, verse, chorus, bridge, break, tag(refrain). Find some YouTube videos and articles or something to study how to identify “Form of Popular Music” or something like that. PS - Don’t learn any of this stuff by studying “Classical Music Theory”, you’re wasting your time if you’re here to become a Popular Music musician. If you’re trying to learn these concepts that I’m listing and you’re seeing explanations that use sheet music, you may need to find a different resource. *[You can now listen to any popular song and write out its “Form (Structure)” as I have done above above (writing INTRO, VERSE1, CHORUS etc. and actually being correct/accurate in your identification).]Additional skills related to Form: You need to be able to count how many “bars” or “measures” there are in each section of the music (remember how I structured out that song above?). This is a concept learned from studying “Rhythm”. You also need to be able to identify if a song is in the 4/4 or 6/8 time signatures (every once in a gigantically great while you may see a song in 3/4, but don’t worry about it for now). 4/4 is the most common for popular music, don’t actually worry about 6/8 for a while. *[You can now listen to any popular song and correctly identify its structure and also identify how many bars/measures are in each section. Example: INTRO - 8 Bars / VERSE 1 - 8 Bars / CHORUS - 16 bars]Learning How To Identify Scale DegreesI’m playing some pop song. I stop and play a single note. Can you tell me what scale degree it is? If not, keep practicing. Google “Functional Ear Trainer”. It’s a small piece of computer software and it is INCREDIBLE. Practice identifying “diatonic” (notes in 1 specific key) scale degrees until you can hum random notes in a major scale and identify the correct scale degree *always*. Then start listening to the bass guitar in simple songs and practicing your ability to identify the scale degree they’re playing. 95% percent of the time, it *hands you* the chord progression for each section of the song. (Unless there’s an iOS/Android version of THIS SPECIFIC APP (mentioned above), stay away from phone ear training apps. They all suck. Haven’t found a good one yet.) When you listen to a song and try to identify the chord progressions based on what the bass guitar plays, write it down as you listen and look up the song on UltimateGuitarTabs.com to see if you are correct (just make sure you transpose the song to the correct key)*[You can now listen to any popular song and correctly identify its structure, how many bars there are in each section, and what chords happen inside of each bar by identifying the scale degrees that the bass guitar plays (usually each bar has only 1 or 2 chords). Most popular songs will have only 1 chord per bar and much of the time they are the 1 4 5 6 chords in different orders. “Chord Progressions” are groupings of chords that repeat, usually over a cycle of 4 bars. Ex: This song as a chorus 16 bars long. The (chord) progression is 1 5 6 4 four times. You also can now identify the key of the song once you identify the “scale degree #1” or “tonic note”. Once you find the letter name of that tonic note by referencing an instrument, you have the name of the “key” that the song is in.]Learning How To Play All Chords/ScalesSCALES - Learn how to play ALL OF YOUR SCALES by following Gary Burton’s methodology. http://www.jazzpiano.co.nz/wp-co... - Lesson 2 explains the approach you want to practice when it comes to learning scales. The rest may very well be irrelevant. The point is to learn your scales by shape while fiddling around pressing different notes all over your instrument to ingrain the “shape” of the key in your mind. You rarely hit “wrong” notes if you *actually* know your scales (by practicing this methodology, not mindlessly practicing scales like Classical people) because you have trained yourself to see which notes belong to the key that you’re playing in. Video of him explaining some things here:Don’t worry about all of the details in this video where he talks about “a new scale every chord”. Popular music will pretty much always have only one scale per *entire song*. But the way he talks about “fiddling around with the shape and groups of notes for the key” is key to learning your scales. Scales are not an athletic, mechanical exercise. They can be, but their purpose is to show you which notes fit in the key. Last thought: Learn about the concepts of “Relative Major/Relative Minor”. It’s easier to assume that there aren’t really minor scales. There are only major scales, and if you start on the 6th scale degree and move through that scale 1 octave, you have now played the minor scale “relative” to that major key (the only key identity that matters because everything else orients around the “major key” and it’s easier that way).CHORDS - Study the concepts of “Chord Tones” for this one. If I tell you to play me a Gb9#11+13, you don’t have to be comfortable playing chords this complex but you should be able to sit down at a piano and show me what it looks like in root position. You should be able to play me any minor and major chord in any inversion on a piano/keyboard. I’ll give special notice to the maj7 and min7 chords as well as maj9 and min9 chords, because they can be super pretty and add a layer of depth of complexity to your expression, but fluent command over basic major and minor chords are all you need to adequately play pretty much any popular music you’ll hear on the radio. Last thought on chord tones: learn about the difference between a chord tone which is identified as “2” and one which is identified as “9”. Chord tones 2, 4 and 6 are identified as 9, 11 and 13 in certain cases where a 7th scale degree is present in the chord.Alright, I’m definitely missing some things and there are several loose ends I’m sure but it’s way too late for me to finish this post tonight. I’ll come back tomorrow and finish up.Until then~Alrighty, I’m back! Here’s my conclusion:We’ve talked about identifying form, the two main time signatures (4/4 & 6/8), counting bars, identifying scale degrees, learning all the major scales “the way they *should* be learned”, and learning how to construct any chord type with any of the 12 possible chord tones. You may be wondering, “Does knowing all these things *really* enable me to listen to a song once and be able to play it?”. Technically— no. But let’s talk about that.That last, and perhaps the easiest, element in this whole ability to “quickly interpret” an song into a usable mental structure from which an individual can then play the song convincingly happens to be this: Familiarity with the genre. Basically what I mean by this is that many pop songs are very similar in structure and thus can be quite predictable. This makes it much easier to “grab” certain, key elements out of just a couple listens and then reproduce an impressively convincing accompaniment of the song with a certain level of prerequisite skill. In other words, the information that these skills fail to provide you with is captured by your ability to relate to what you just heard. If you listen to a lot of pop music, the rest of the details are generalized like this: “Oh yeah, this part sounds like that one Adele song.. cool. I can do that” - “Oh I know this sound, it’s like that Coldplay song” - “Hey, I recognize this rhythm pattern, it sounds like that song I heard just the other day”. So all this music theory and ear training stuff gives you a skeleton from which you can play an “convincing” arrangement with enough skill, but your prior familiarity with the genre is what allows you to embody the sound with much more idiomatic nuance and it will start sounding a lot more “authentic”.Music is an incredible adventure and there is much to learn in the beginning! But I promise you, if you learn (what I call) “Practical Music Theory”, you won’t be disappointed! That is, if your goal is to learn how music really works and how to sit down at an instrument and be appreciably creative. Learning music in this way is the most efficient path to being both an informed and creative “Musical Artist”. At its core, you learn about the elements of rhythm, melody and harmony, and then you CREATE. This is how it was always meant to be…

Well, let’s take a look at where we ar, first. The cutting edge of what everyone’s doing in camera design today suggests what we’ll all have in time. And where it might also be headed.Since You Mentioned ColorFirst of all, you’re way off on color film. There were experiements in color photography in the 1840s. Gabriel Lippmann invented a system of color photography using interference in the 1890s, which resulted in his winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908. James Clerk Maxwell came up with the RGB color system we use to this day in many things back in 1855. By 1861, some experimenters were making color photographs using color separation (three separate photos shot through R, G, and B filters.. the basis for the early versions of the Technicolor cinema process, years later).This idea was used in various forms, and more or less met the modern age 70 years ago, when Kodak introduced Kodachrome in 1935, and Agfa introduced Agfacolor in 1936.An interesting thing about color film for ages is that it’s a stack of color sensitive layers. Films typically had three layers, red, green, and blue sensitive layers. Most digital sensors work differently. A silicon photodiode, the sensing element in modern digital cameras, are not color sensitive. In order to get color, you typically have a series of filters over the sensor array, most of which follow the idea invented at Kodak by Bryce Bayer, and thus dubbed the Bayer filter.Color is created on a per-pixel basis in a Bayer sensor by “demosaicing” .. in short, nearby colors are interpolated to deliver the “missing” two colors for each pixel location. This works very well for most situations, but can result in false colors along very sharp contrast lines. The filters are also blocking nearly 2/3 of the light per pixel in order to deliver the color filtering.Some attempts around this have been made. The Foveon sensor, owned by Sigma Corporation, works in a stack, kind of the same idea as film. These sensors use photodiodes at three different levels in the silicon substrate. As light passes through silicon, there’s some natural absorbtion… you’ve no doubt seen this in water if you’re done much snorkling or underwater photography. So their diagram illustrates blue, green, and red sensor layers.. but what they actually capture is red, red+green, and red+green+blue (aka, white) layers, and use proprietary subtractive processing to deliver the final image.Sounds nice in theory, but in practice, it has issues. The lower layers get much less light, so much less that in the current Foveon sensors, the top layer is at full resolution, the second and third layers are at 1/4 resolution. So there’s still some interpolation. And these sensors are fairly low in sensitivity compared to Bayer sensors with a similar effective resolution. However, a number of other companies have been looking at different solutions to this approach that might get around some of the problems with multi-layer sensors.Part of this is based on the way the eye works… we have only about 6 million color-sensitive sensors in our eyes, but 120 million luma-sensitive sensors (see Dave Haynie's answer to What is the resolution of the human eye in megapixels?). So we just don’t care about color as much as resolution, but we also do care about color distortions in a photo. So improving today’s cameras on color, other than in basic and slow refinements to how we do it today, can have unwanted side effects.Another technology in development for digital image color is micro color splitting. As mentioned, we’re currently filtering away as much as 2/3 of our color using the Bayer filter. In this approach, micro deflectors are used which transmit some light, redirect other light to adjacent pixels, based on the light’s color, using diffraction. This would still require interpolation, and more complex interpolation than in a straight Bayer sensor, but it’s allowing more light into the sensor.Another approach in development, dubbed “active pixel color sampling”, is using a moveable color filter array. This would not be in a classic Bayer arrangement, but include R, G, and B colors in line with each other. The sensor would shoot three shots, each of which has the sensor in a different position, delivering R, G, and B color information to each sensor location across three exposures. The issue, of course, is making this fast enough to deal with motion between frames… and we’ll see in a bit, this approach is actually already being done by some cameras is a slightly different way.Resolution and SensitiviyWhen the digital photography revolution more or less began, I was shooting film and scanning it into my PC at about 10MPixels. The interesting thing was that just about everything I shot showed visible grain in the digital image. Except Kodachrome 25. No signNow grain. So I used that as one benchmark for chemical photography. Kodak claimed about 100 line-pair per millimeter, or 200 lines per millimeter. Simply representing that in pixels gets you a 7200 x 4800 pixel image, or 34.5 megapixels.It’s not quite that simple. Looking structurally, chemical films have had individual silver halide crystals in a consistent but random pattern. Not all crystals are of the same size, but they typically vary from 0.5μm to 5μm or so, depending on the kind of film, sensitivity, etc. The crystals are of different sizes and randomly distributed across the film. In color photography, you have this across your three color sensitive layers, and in addition, during the development process, the film chemically forms dye clouds around each developed silver particle, then the silver is bleached out. So there’s some loss of resolution there.When a photon encouters a silver halide crystal, a free-carrier electron is released within the crystal. That electronic passes through the halide crystal and will be trapped at a “sensitivity speck” on the crystal, where it’s likely to reduce a silver ion in the halide lattice to an atom of metallic silver. One about four silver atoms are thus collected, typical photo developers will be able to convert the entire crystal to metallic silver. Thus, the size of the crystal determines the size and number of these “photon targets”, and the sensitivty and grain structure of the film.In digital, you typically have a fixed array of photodiodes. The photodiodes in my Canon 6D’s 20Mpixel full frame 35mm sensor are 6.55μm. But move to a Canon 5Ds, and you have a 50Mpixel full frame sensor with 4.14µm pixels… still much larger than the size of many silver halide crystals. These very sensitive and relatively large sensors have very effectively extended the range of photography to the detection of a single photon in photodiodes, and given that a single pixel can capture a wide dynamic range, based on size of the pixel, the capacity of the charge well that stores the output of that pixel, and the noise in system. Great strides have been made over the years in controlling on-sensor noise. This all adds up to the fact that typical digital cameras greatly exceed the ISO equivalent of film and deliver less noisy images when matched shot for shot.There’s no grain per se in digital imaging, but there is noise. Some noise is inevitable shot-noise… simply, when you’re shooting in very low light, there can be a scarcity of pixels enough to result in a grainy look. There is also thermal noise, so as shot goes longer, more thermal noise can become visibile (which is why astrophotographers use cameras with sensor cooling). And finally, read noise, the process of reading out the pixels itself creates noise. Most modern camera sensors do the analog-to-digital conversion on the actual image sensor these days, to minimize noise in the system from affecting the image.So where might these things go? There have been experiments in using different kinds of pixel arrangements. Fujifilm’s EXR sensor used a modified Bayer array that made it easier to “bin” pixels together. So the 12Mpixel sensor in my Fujifilm X-S1 can be configured as a 6Mpixel sensor with effectively 2x larger pixels, as the diagonally-adjacent R, G, and B pixel pair work together. As more capabilities go onto sensor chips, we may expect to see other kinds of reconfiguration on-sensor.Another approach has been to build an array of both large and small photodiodes. This creates an even more complex interpolation, but is one way to deliver an increased dynamic range. Fujifilm also worked on this, and others have been looking at the concept. One stumbling block is what you do to deliver a final image. Digital photography pretty much demands final output that’s an N x M array of RGB pixels (or Y Cr Cb pixels if you’re shooting in JPEG, but that’s expanded to RGB when loaded). Some of these in the past failed simply because the image information was too large for the preceived value. That’s likely to change as we start to stop caring about file sizes.And back to thinking about pixel sizes… we can actually make really, really small pixels. Many smartphones have camera sensors with pixels in the 1µm range. The problems there are twofold. For one, there’s still the issue that a smaller pixel is a smaller target. Modern chip technologies like BSI and Stacked sensors have pushed the “pixel fill”, the amount of the actual space for a pixel that’s filled by a photodiode, to nearly the theoretical maximum (some space has to be left to avoid crosstalk). Reducing on-chip noise makes up a little, but ultimately, a smaller pixel is going to be a problem as the sun goes down. So when you have the pixel space, as in a full frame 35mm camera, smaller pixels are not always a big win.That said, Canon recently showed off a prototype of a 120Mpixel sensor camera. No announced deliver, but that is over twice the resolution of the Canon 5Ds available today. The most obvious issue with this, and where we’re going to hit the limits of physics, is on diffraction. When you buy that shiny new smartphone with a 16–20Mpixel sensor, you probably also get a lens on that bad-boy that’s at f/1.8 or so. And fixed. You can’t go to a smaller aperture. The reason for that is simple: due to diffraction, the property of light through an aperture to bend a little, any stopping down of that smartphone lens and you’d get a loss of practical resolution. For a DSLR like the Canon 5Ds or a smaller sensor pro camera like a Micro Four-thirds Olympus OM-D, you don’t really want to stop down much below f/11.You also need better lenses for smaller pixels. When Canon came out with the 5Ds, they included a list of existing lenses recommended for it. After all, if your lens isn’t sharp enough to deliver a true 50Mpixel image, what’s the point?Other Sensor TechnologiesWe made the jump from CCD to CMOS some years ago, and CCD was the big improvement over the Videcon tube. So there’s a fair chance that silicon isn’t the final destination for photography. Our CMOS sensors improved their light collection with backside illumination (BSI), and then with stacked sensors, which put the “backside” sensors on their own chip, and stack that on top of the chip that does all the digital processing.Right now, we’re pushing the speed up on these sensors with additional MIPI interface lanes and internal parallelism, having dumped the analog interface and done all the digital processing on-chip, which is now actually not the chip that does the image sensing anymore, in the stacked configuration. Next thing, we have some kind of on-chip memory. They did that in CCDs, ages ago. Each sensor in a CCD had its own memory, which stored charge and shifted that out, cell to cell, in an analog interface.. that was the “charge coupling”, essentially a bucket brigade of charge.But it meant you had to read the whole chip before taking the next shot, and that without a mechanical shutter, the image was subject to interference. They fixed this by basically taking every-other pixel and using that as memory. So the shot is snapped, and every pixel charged is sent to the charge bucket next door, which doesn’t have a sensor on it. These could then proceed to bucket-brigade in peace, and the CCD had it’s global electronic sensor.Most CMOS sensors today have “rolling” shutters. The electronic shutter is really just a matter of enabling capture on the chip, stopping it, reading it out. This “rolls” on a CMOS chip as the senaor is sensitized, timed, and read out precisely to get the correct exposure. Pro cameras have mechanical shutters, still, to prevent the small problem of objects moving in this time. So some now, but in the future mainsteam cameras will have global shutters: the sensor is exposed, and every pixel is digitized and transferred to on-sensor memory instantly, then sent out as quickly as possible over MIPI or some proprietary digital interface.And still, we’re talking about silicon here, just more of it. But some companies are looking at using elements of organic compound in otherwise silicon sensors in order to improve on the sensor design. There may be a day when the sensor parts or even the whole chip is based on carbon compounds instead of silicon. Carbon is also being researched for making still-smaller chips, which is certainly a concern for on-camera capabilities. As we get to 5nm chips, we’re actually geting to too-few silicon atoms per transistor. Carbon transistors can be smaller, so that along makes this an interesting direction.One interesting possibility with organic sensors is a dramatic increase in signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range. Right now, we get sensors with 12 to 14-bits worth of resolution, but once we get to 22–24-bits, we’ll have a true full-range ISO-less camera. Keep in mind, ISO is kind of artificial in still cameras. In video, there has traditionally been an amplifier between the analog output and the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which was set in terms of actual amplification in decibels (dB), basically a volume control… you turned it up if the signal was too weak, down if it was too strong.The problem is, your camera’s 12dB isn’t necessarily my camera’s 12dB. So when making digital cameras, the industry and the International Standards Organization (ISO) got together and established guidelines for ISO for cameras. And most of that was about setting a scale on that volume control that corresponded in some expected way to the scale used on film. Over time, camera companies offered “extended” ISO ranges that might use software processing to deliver a higher setting, rather than actual hardware. That’s because you can only amplify a signal so much without making the noise visible. And even having that extra amplifer staget there before the ADC added a little noise.So some cameras, today, are “ISO-less” .. they digitize the 12-bits or 14-bits out of the sensor and use that for all ISO ranges. If you had a 14-bit sensor and only shot JPEG, for example, you’d have an honest 6 ISO range on that camera, without overextending the image processing. But imagine a sensor that put out 20 or 24-bits of infomation. You’d have crazy dynamic range, the camera would record that whole 24-bits, and you’d decide in Photoshop what ISO you wanted to shoot at!Where Do I Put It All?Right now, we have a kind of golden age of photography. My Canon 6D has only about 4.5fps shooting and a memory buffer that can fill up. But on my newer Olympus OM-D EM-5 mk II, I can shoot raw photos all day (well, until the memory card fills or the battery needs replacing) at 5fps, with full image stabilization and autofocus. A new Olympus model extends that to 18fps with electronic shutter, or (buffer limited) up to 60fps with first-frame-only AF. That same new model, the E-M1 mk II can also shoot a series of 14 shots before your finger actually depresses the shutter button all the way.That’s tapping today’s super fast SDXC UHS-II memory cards, and some cameras use even faster CFast (SATA-based), XQD (PCI Express x1 based) and other new technologies. That will continue… memory speed will get faster and faster. The smallest card I have today is 32GB, I have a 256GB memory card in my smartphone. This may all be leading to the day when the average consumer camera doesn’t have a memory card at all… just a nearly unlimited chunk of memory that you’ll probably never use, but is cheap enough to not worry about.Right now, we use Flash memory, which has been the memory of choice for just about the whole digital photo revolution. Ok, Sony used floppied, then 3″ CDs on the early Mavicas (though the first one was analog electronic photography, not digital). But that could be coming to an end. Several kind of memory are in the works that can replace both DRAM and Flash memory. Imagine that all your camera’s memory runs at buffer speeeds. You could shoot that 60fps until the battery runs down and not worry about it.I don’t expect professionals will be keeping all their photos on their cameras forever. But things may change to the point that you typically don’t use a memory card, it’s all in internal non-volatile MRAM or FeRAM or PRAM or maybe NanoRAM or 3D X-Point RAM or Memristors. When you enter your house or office, the camera and the home network talk and instantly just start unloading the camera. Could be there’s an SD card in there, but one that just functions as an optional running backup to the internal memory.And yet, we still want archival storage. Today, I put my photos on a RAID for quick access and onto HTL Blu-ray discs for long term backup. But a 50GB Blu-ray isn’t going to make you happy when you’re dealing in too many 100MB or even GB sized photos. Hard drives are useful, too, but they also wear out, the break when you drop them, etc. Some folks like M-Disc, which is very reliable but expensive (a 25-pack of 100GB BDXL M-Discs costs about $400). There are new long-term storage technologies in the works, like Memristors, which may eventually provide more reliable, higher density card and disc storage.Software Aided PhotographyA big part of recent innovations in photography these days are a combination of clever software with your hardware, in ways that would have been impossible in the past. I expect this to continue.Since I use one, look at Olympus. They have a bunch of cool ideas in their cameras. First of all, the in-body-image-stabilization (IBIS) system. Pentax has used that as well, and more recently Sony, but Olympus pushed it to about 5 stops of stablization in the OM-D E-M5II and 5.5 in the E-M1II. Since it couples with an optically stabilized lens as well, that can deliver 6.5 stops of stabilization. People are actually taking sharp images, hand-held, with multi-second exposures. It’s kind of science fiction already. I can shoot video on my E-M5II as stable as my Panasonic pro camcorder on my Glidecam 2000. Or better. This kind of technology has come very far in the last decade, and it’s likely to be spread (Panasonic’s using it in some new models) and improved.Olympus used the same moving image sensor for a different trick. Because the moving sensor can be driven to offset motion, what if instead, they move it precisely to improve image quality. That’s the Olympus “Hires” mode on the E-M5II, the Pen F, and the new E-M1II. What they do is shoot eight shots, moving the sensor either 1/2 or 1 full pixel each time. That results in eight 16MPixel shots in an E-M5II raw file, but that really amounts to two 16Pixel images, offset by 1/2 pixel, with each pixel containing RGBG information. So no de-Bayering, improved color, and improved dynamic range… and that’d before you figure out how to make it a single image.I mentioned the need for a nice even array before, eh? Here we have in essence one 32Mpixel full RGB image, but with interstitial pixels. Interpolating this to a rectangular regular pixel array yields twice the pixels, or 64Mpixels. Now, this won’t have the resolution of a true 64MPixel camera… in-camera, a JPEG of this is rendered at 40Mpixels, and compares reasonably well to a 36Mpixel Nikon — maybe a bit less practical resolution, but better color.Now, today, this has to be done on a tripod and is only really practical for a still subject. But add in faster shooting and faster processing, and perhaps this kind of shot will work hand-held one day.There are of course other multi-shot enhanements. In signal processing, it’s common to multi-sample a repeating signal to reduce visible noise. The noise we can’t fully control in a system is random noise, but it’s random. When I add one random number to another, I get a random number that looks exactly the same. So when I average four shots of the same thing together, I get a shot with only 1/4 of the original noise. My Canon 6D, already stellar at low-light performance, has a mode that does this.Many folks are into High Dynamic Range shooting these days, and some cameras have an auto-HDR mode that does multiple exposures to “stack” several for HDR processing… if you bracket three shots by 2 f-stops, you’re extending your camera’s natural range by 4 f-stops. Many cameras can even process this for you. That sort of thing is going to continue evolving. Some cameras can even do this today in one shot, because of the dynamic range of the sensor. For consumers, you’re shooting JPEG most of the time, which records 8-bits/color (and sometimes less than that), but a top notch DSLR sensor can deliver 14-bits of information per sensor. So compressing that (which is what HDR software does) into a JPEG can give you a taste of that wide dynamic range, stuffed into something you can use in normal photo workflows.Another recent software innovation is automatic focus stacking. Imagine you’re shooting a macro shot of Mr. Frog here. You don’t mind part of him being out of focus, but it’s impossible to get enough of him in focus with the macro lens and exposure you need to shoot. Automatic focus bracketing will have your camera shoot a series of shots with slightly different focus. In-camera focus stacking will process the image to include the clearest part of each image. You easily get a shot that would have been difficult manually and impossible without some kind of focus stacking.Another one from Olympus in recent cameras is Live Composite mode. This basically stacks light. It shoots multiple exposures, but only adds the increases in light between shots. This is one you can do in Photoshop by creating a Smart Object and setting the right composite mode, but it’s actually more powerful to have in-camera, because you know it’s done right at the point of shooting.Panasonic has a cool technology called Depth from Defocus (DFD). In the DSLR world, you have special focusing sensors in your camera that read off or through the mirror and use phase detection for auto focus. Phase detection is basically looking at a bit of image and determines not just if it’s in focus, but if not, how far it’s off and in what direction. This allows for very fast focusing, which most mirrorless cameras can’t match. Some mirrorless put PDAF sensors on the image chip iself, but Panasonic had a different idea.They did fairly extentive analysis of their lenses and how they looked when out of focus at different points, and included that information in the lens. The camera does imagine processing on the image to get a signature that’s compared to the lens’s DFD information, and that allows the camera to estimate where to move the lens to get it close to focus, at which point the contrast-detection auto focus takes over. CDAF is not normally able to estimate direction or extent of defocus, so it has to “seek” for focus, and that’s often slower than PDAF, sometimes signNowly. As we have more on-camera signal processing, I think we’ll see more of these novel soft of solutions.Metafeatures: Growing New FeaturesWay back when then Canon 5D mark II shipped and started creating a buzz around using a DSLR for serious video work, Canon did something pretty unusual: they updated the camera with a whole new feature, a 24fps progressive video setting, the film standard, of course. Everyone who bought one could get this feature for the trouble of downloading.A couple of my Olympus cameras have had “major software updates” that added features. For example, when I bought my OM-D E-M5II, it didn’t have a Focus Bracketing mode. Now it does. I think Fujifilm has offered updates with new features. Most cameras out today can be pretty easily updated with new software.. Olympus includes a tool that knows your gear and will tell you about updates.Panasonic came out with a V-Log update for their DMC-GH4. In this case, you had to pay $99 for this feature, but with low-contrast being an important thing for shooting video that will later be graded, having this available is a big win over no availability.And of course, lots of cameras have “art filters”, which do the same kinds of image processing in-camera that you get in Photoshop and other image manipulation programs. But different cameras, different art filters.I wouldn’t be surprised that if, at some point, these become plug-ins… you could buy a pack of your favorite effects and put them on your camera. In fact, you more or less can today if you’re using one of the few P&S cameras that’s driven by Android. Or a smartphone… lots of folks shoot to Instagram and apply the filters, post-shot but right on the scene. And don’t expect just silly stuff for Instagram… imagine being able to dial in and tweak lens flare or bokeh or other things you might actualy want to use as a serious photographer. Or dial in Kodacolor, Velvia, Tri-X, etc. if you wanted a specific film look, right in-camera.And also, hacks. Twenyt years ago, hacking your camera for new features might have conjured up images of a precision machine shop, but it’s been more software. The older Panasonic GH3 was a very popular hacking target, as it could be tweaked to shoot at much higher bitrates, thus lower compression, than the stock software allowed. The big hack out there today is Magic Lantern, for some of the Canon cameras. This adds a whole toolbox of extra features to your Canon DSLR… some can even shoot raw video, now.As we start to use software-enhanced photography on a regular basis, we’ll start to rely on it, and then get annoyed when going between camera vendors or even models that don’t have those functions. The solution here may be opening cameras to third parties, maybe even with “camera API” becoming standard, to let folks manipulate the image without the potential of damaging the hardware. We’ll see.Into Other DimensionsAll of these things so far are still discussing fairly conventional digital cameras. But some of these are changing already in interesting ways.A number of companies are messing with curved image sensors. We already deal with one every day — the eye. The human eye has a roughly 22mm diameter, a bit larger than the sensor in a Micro four-thirds camera. But it’s semi-spherical, so the actual surface area is around 1100mm^2, larger than a 35mm camera sensor. And the lens, too, is semi-spherical. So the eye can deliver a very good image without the need for the complex lenses we make for cameras today - a bit part of those many-element lens is the tick of keeping an image clear and equally bright across the flat image field we’re projecting. A curved sensor would offer a better image and larger sensor in a smaller package.Taking a completely opposite approach, why not make a flat lens? Researchers in metamaterials have come up with a flat lens made in a process similar to that of an IC. They start with a super-thin piece of transparent quartz, and build nanostructures of titanium dioxide only 600nm tall. The orientation and other physical characteristics of these structures. The characteristics are fairly narrowband right now, but they can design these with very aberations, design the specifically for projection on flat surfaces, etc. A single lens of this type may prove all you need for a camera lens.. the prototype done at Harvard, used as a microscope lens, was 30% sharper than the microscope lens it replaced. These lenses are so thin they’d need to be reinforced, may times thinner than a filter. A camera could have several of these built-in, probably even a smartphone, switching them based on the desired focal length.Another new direction is the plenoptic camera, also called the light-field camera. When we think of a camera, it’s easy to understand in the digital realm, we take a photo through a lens and that image is projected across an array of sensors, each of which more or less becomes a pixel in the image, a picture element.What if we actually recorded light rays? Rather than just recording an intensity for each pixel, how about an intensity and a vector — the direction of that light ray. That’s the idea of the light field camera. If you’re capable of doing that in any meaningful way, you essentially don’t record an image, you record the information necessary to create an image in a varity of ways. A company called Lytro has done a few of these cameras, but they’ve been little more than a curiosity. But now they’re working on lightfield cameras for digital cinematography, which could be very interesting.And another is object processing. Right now, most new cameras can recognize human faces. Software on social media sites like Facebook can recognize good images of specific people in the photos you upload. Imagine this kind of technology baking for a few decades.Long ago, the MPEG-4 video format was designed for object processed video. So for example, maybe you get to see the football match free, but you have to pay a bit extra to see the ball. That’s maybe a sill exanple, and no one’s done a great deal with it, but it was discussed. Ok, no imagine your camera is smart enough to catalog many of the things in every photo. You take that shot, you get back home, load up that image into Photoshop 2030, and you see there’s an ugly telephone poll listed. You go to the objects menu, delete the telephone poll by name, and that is gone from your photo, no trace left. You might also search your photo catalog for every photo of your cat “Joffrey” (my wife picked the name). Sure, today you can add that metadata when you go though your photo collection. But in the future, your camera may be calling out individual objects in the photo, easier because it’s looking before and after the actual exposure to held define those objects, and your cataloging software would fill in more specific information: it knows there’s a cat, a specific cat name Joffrey, maybe additional information, it knows he’s sitting or sleeping or jumping, etc. All with very little work on your part.We’ve seen a few multi-sensor smartphones lately, but this one, the Light camera, was out before that and kind of over-the-top. This camera includes sixteen separate sensors, up to ten of which can be used for any given shot. Of the sixteen cellphone-like small sensors, five are wide angle, five are short telephoto, and six are long telephone. The light path of the all tele sensors is folded, kind of like a periscope, which keeps the camera both thin.They’re doing a variety of computional photography tricks in this camera. They’re compositing the output of multiple sensors to deliver a larger image with less noise. They’re doing some parallex computation, based on different sensor position, which can be used to deliver artificial depth-of-field effects… as mentioned a way’s back, these small sensors have very deep focal fields and can’t be stopped down without diffraction. This can also interpolate between camera focal lengths to deliver something like the effect of a smooth zoom. This model was actually quite a bit more expensive than a good entry-level DSLR or mirrorless rig, but they’re first production run sold out, and they’re planning to make more in 2017.Some of this kind of computational photography will certainly hit the mainstream. Already, LG, Apple, Huawei, and perhaps others have put dual cameras in their smartphones. This is somewhat an admission that today’s 12–20Mpixel phone cameras are just not going to be any better, other than maybe by small incrementl technology improvements, without getting too large for a phone. So everyone’s looking to do something new with multiple cameras.The Leica-codesigned dual-camera in the Huawei P9, while kind of an underperformer, had lots of interesting ideas. It’s got two matched camera/lens systems, except that one of the cameras has no Bayer filter. So you have a monochrome shot that’s 3x or so the sensitivity of your color camera. Even as close as they are, the software can exploit parallex between the two to judge the distance of things and deliver a “virtual” aperture setting, doing software defocusing of background images scaled to about what you might see with a DSLR.The Slow MarchSome of these things seem pretty exciting to me, but there’s always a wait for cool new “future” technology to make it into the present. And then, once here, a longer time for the industry and users to decide if it’s a great innovation or a goofy thing to mock in some worst-of-the-year list. Innovation, after all, isn’t what I’m doing today, it’s what history has to judge about what I did yesterday.Some things catch on fast. Image stabilization was in higher-end camera lenses for awhile, but it made its way into just about every P&S camera, camcorder, and more recently, smartphone, within only about the last ten years. And with several different ways to achieve it. Before that, it was autofocus and before that, auto-exposure. Go back to 1960s SLRs and only Konica was pushing auto exposure.Some of these things are pretty experimental, and could be dead ends, or just take years to develop. It took about 25 years from the first Lithium Ion battery working in the lab to becoming a regular battery you could buy, and another 10 for it to absolutely dominate the camera battery market. One big reason — the early ones exploded.. a problem we have seen hasn’t always been resolved even today.