Occipital ClearCam improves iPhone photo quality

ClearCam is an iPhone application that uses superresolution algorithms to provide a sharper higher-resolution photo. The software takes six photos in a 2.5-second time frame at a two-megapixel resolution to produce a photo at a higher four-megapixel resolution. ClearCam also provides a QuickShot mode that saves the sharpest of four photos taken in under two seconds.

The iPhone software is created by Occipital, a startup founded by Jeff Powers and Vikas Reddy. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the company is one of ten companies chosen to participate in second year of TechStars, a competition for a venture capitalist funding.

According to one review of ClearCam, it can take about 40 seconds to align and process the photos. The software also requires the users to jailbreak their iPhone, a process that opens up the iPhone to install third party applications outside the Apple App Store. This is not to be confused with unlocking the iPhone, which refers to modifying the iPhone to accept other network carriers besides those approved by Apple.