ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of the hardware and software inventions that continue to make capturing and sharing quality images easier, as well as the implications on society, as trillions of digital images enter into all our media. Digital imaging and photography is by far the most popular visual medium of all communication technologies. Digital images of any sort, from family photographs to medical X-rays to geo-satellite images, can be treated as data. This ability to take, scan, manipulate, disseminate, track, or store images in a digital format has spawned major changes in the communication technology industry. The technological advancement that has had the largest impact on the digital imaging and photography industry up to is the use of the mobile phone as a camera. Computational photography allows a final image to be reinterpreted in ways never before seen in the industry.
