Toronto: Imagine a musical concert being televised by a major network. Even though the singer is in sharp focus, band members in the background, are invariably out of focus. Now, a new video camera can remove this limitation.

Unlike conventional video cameras which are unable to focus simultaneously on both the singer and band members in the background, the Omni-focus Video Camera (OfVC) removes this limitation to deliver higher-quality video images and improved quality of experience to potentially millions of TV viewers worldwide.

The OfVC, based on an entirely new distance-mapping principle, delivers automatic real-time focus of both near and far field images, simultaneously, in high resolution. This unprecedented capability can be broadly applied in industry, including manufacturing, medicine, defence, security -- and for the consumer market.

Principal investigator of the OfVC, Keigo Iizuka, professor of electrical and computer engineering, University of Toronto, invented a novel distance-mapping camera, the Divergence-ratio Axi-vision Camera, abbreviated 'Divcam,' which is a key component of the new OfVC.

The OfVC, produced in collaboration with consulting investigator David Wilkes, president of Wilkes Associates, a Canadian high-tech product development company, contains an array of colour video cameras, each focused at a different distance, and an integrated Divcam.

The Divcam maps distance information for every pixel in the scene in real time. The OfVC's 'unique ability to achieve simultaneous focus of all of the objects in a scene, near or far, multiple or single, without the usual physical movement of the camera's optics, represents a true advancement,' says Wilkes. The camera is still in the research phase.