Lytro Camera Dev Kit Or ‘LDK’ Launched In Partnership With NASA And US DOD

When Lytro's light-field camera technology first hit the scene in late 2011, it seemed pretty certain from the get-go that it was going to be a hit. What it brought to the table was a "focus later" mechanic, and just as it sounds, photos taken with Lytro can be refocused after-the-fact. A license plate that's unreadable in the default shot, for example, could suddenly become readable after the user adjusts the focus.

Ever since Lytro released its first consumer camera, it seems that business has been quite good. But as we can see today, it looks like it's the company's technologies - not its actual products - that will propel it to super stardom.

Today, the company has announced that a small fleet of agencies have adopted its "LDK", or Lytro Development Kit. At the forefront is NASA, which plans to make use of in its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and even the US Department of Defense is getting in on the action, with it to head to the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate. The list is rounded out by General Sensing, and an undisclosed fourth member.

While Lytro's technologies can be a great deal of fun to play with as a consumer, today's news highlights the fact that they can also be used for very important purposes. Exactly how these agencies will make use of the technology, we're not sure, but one thing I am pretty confident of is that the list of supporters won't stop there.