We'll let you suss out the technical details, but a team of Mitsubishi researchers seems to have come up with a cheap-'n'-dirty way to improve autofocus performance in camera lenses.
Inserting a patterned filter between lens elements seems to give the lens a better idea of what to focus on by creating a "modulated 4D light field." (Yes, I also thought time was the fourth dimension, but that's what happens when you hire liberal arts grads to write about science.)
Dappled Photography: Mask Enhanced Cameras for
Heterodyned Light Fields and Coded Aperture Refocusing [Mitsubishi Electronics Research Labs]
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