Canon Patents Retina ID in Viewfinder

No, it’s not the eye tracking you were thinking of. Instead, it tracks photographers’ eyes. A new patent noted over at Northlight Images (via CanonRumors) shows Canon is studying how to distinguish who is taking pictures, and keep track of the sorts of things that person likes to photograph.

The example given in the patent involves a mom and dad both interested in their children among additional kids, but when the camera knows (via iris detection) that the mom is shooting, it remembers that she like shooting flowers, so it gives more weight to the flowers in focus priority over the railroad, which is more of interest to the father.

This sort of automated focus priority would almost certainly drive most advanced users crazy, as they tend to like to make the decisions for themselves. Tracking has long been accepted as useful, but subject selection is likely a step too far.