camera obscura's were just boxes or rooms with a small f stop... The problem comes in when you want a larger aperture, optics shift the focal plane so you don't get "blurry shots"

Even on the forum they are excluding optics...
http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=2941#post-49785

NSXType-R said:
Yes, I saw this online. I'm not sure how it works- I'm pretty sure you still need optics of some sort, but then again, I guess this is like X-ray photography- all you need is a sensitive plate and you can still expose stuff.

Why would you need optics? When photography first started they didn't use optics. Pinhole cameras don't use optics.

yeah, we did this a lot in school. No optics, just direct exposure againt the photo paper. Works really good with leaves and thin objects, that are semi-transparent.

Yes, I saw this online. I'm not sure how it works- I'm pretty sure you still need optics of some sort, but then again, I guess this is like X-ray photography- all you need is a sensitive plate and you can still expose stuff.

http://digitaljournalofphotography.blogspot.com/2010/10/photos-without-cameras.html

Rather cool. There is also a link in the story to video related to this.