Jobs's Last Photography Wish: iPhone With Lytro, the Focus-Free Camera? [VIDEO]

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A new book by a top Fortune reporter reveals that Steve Jobs sought out the up-and-coming Lytro camera CEO -- and putting Lytro in the iPhone was discussed.

Lytro, a light-field capture technology that lets you shoot first and focus the shot later, is about to lauch its first consumer models in the US in the first half of 2012. It was developed by Stanford Ph.D and light field expert Dr. Ren Ng.

In mid-2011, Ng was briefing media and big tech companies on the product he would shortly announce. Mashable received one of these briefings; the subsequent story was one of the most popular of that month. Jobs was fascinated enough to summon Ng to his Palo Alto home.

SEE MORE: Lytro Camera Interactive Gallery Lets You Try The Magic Yourself [PICS]

According to Adam Lashinsky, Fortune's veteran of the tech beat, Jobs was looking for a new technology that could revolutionize the entire field of photography via the iPhone, and Lytro looked like it could fit the bill for the Apple billionaire.

With Lytro built into every iPhone, instead of the bulkier auto-focus device in current models, people could take snapshots instantly without waiting for the image to focus.

Lytro integrates well with Facebook, allowing your friends to refocus your shot in different ways. That functionality baked into the iPhone would give Apple a vital edge within the social network.