Computational photography refers broadly to sensing strategies and algorithmic techniques that enhance or extend the capabilities of digital photography. The output of these techniques is an ordinary photograph, but one that could not have been taken by a traditional camera. Representative techniques include high dynamic range imaging, flash-noflash imaging, coded aperture and coded exposure imaging, photography under structured illumination, multi-perspective and panoramic stitching, digital photomontage, all-focus imaging, and light field imaging.

Although interest in computational photography has been increasing, progress is hampered by the lack of a portable, programmable camera with enough image quality and computing power for everyday photography. To address this problem, the Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory is building an open-source camera platform that runs Linux, is programmable at the microsecond time scale, and is connected to the Internet, and accommodates SLR lenses and SLR-quality sensors. Our current prototype is big and ugly - hence the name. Our immediate goal is to distribute this platform to computational photography researchers and courses worldwide. Our long-term goal is to spur the growth of an open-source camera community, leading eventually to commercial cameras that accept plugins and apps.