Besides illustrating why nerds mostly game while sedentary, this vid shows the ZCam, by Israeli company 3DV Systems, in action. ZCam works by sensing depth, which is fairly innovative when it comes to interactive gaming. Instead of looking for motion or color, in the demo application (a boxing game) the camera figures out where you are and what you’re doing by contrasting distances. For example, it knows that if it sees small objects moving around in front of a large object, those are probably your fists in front of your body, and it can project those into a gaming environment like the boxing demo. The infrared rangefinder has a depth resolution of up to 1 centimeter and VGA resolution at 60fps, meaning that it can effectively detect finger movements. The camera unit should be released at the end of the year for under $100, but software developers are going to have to integrate the technology into their products for any of us to get much use out of it.
How many times have you been out somewhere and decided to snap a picture, but you wanted to be in it and no one was around to hold the camera? At this point you have to find somewhere to set the camera, someplace that will be the correct height and sit at the perfect angle to get your shot. Sure, you could walk around everywhere with a tripod, but then you look like a tool.
Here’s a camera stand (I’d call it a tripod, but it really has to have three legs to earn that title) that wouldn’t be so bad to carry around. It folds up quite small, and can even attach to your keychain. When you unfold it, you find that it will adjust to direct your lens at just the right angle to snap that awesome picture. The only downside to this little gadget is that it doesn’t appear to be available outside of France.
Being too poor to actually shell out the cash for a purpose built geotagging gadget (like this), on my last few trips I’ve taken along a regular GPS and synchronized my camera’s clock to it. I’d leave the GPS on while I was taking pics, and then when I got home, spend an unbelievably tedious evening matching the GPS info with my image timestamps. If you don’t have as many free evenings to spend doing unbelievably tedious things as I do, check out the ATP GPS Photo Finder. It does basically the same thing, except faster and better and without a PC. It takes a couple AA batts and works just like a normal GPS device, storing up to 550 hours of location data (updated every 5 seconds) on its 128mb of internal memory. Make sure your camera is synced to the GPS time the Photo Finder displays, and when you’re done shooting, just stick your camera’s SD/MMC/MS card into the Photo Finder and it’ll automatically geotag all your pics. So, it’s a card reader too, and comes with a USB cable to connect to your computer if you want. The current limitation (besides the memory card restriction) is that it only works with JPEGs, so if you’re into RAW, you’re out of luck. The geotagged pics integrate directly into Google Earth and Google Maps (with Picasa), and if you’ve never tried it before, it’s totally cool. Maybe not quite worth the $130 MSRP cool, but cool nonetheless.
I’m really not much of a cellphone fanatic (or even fan, to tell you the truth), but I felt obligated to post about this purportedly forthcoming multimedia cameraphone from Kodak and Motorola because of the 5 megapixel sensor it’s supposed to have stuffed inside it. I’m all for progress, but just look at that tiny pinhole of a lens… 5 megapixels isn’t going to do you much good at all without some serious glass (or, for that matter, some focusing elements) in front. All you’re really doing is trading quality for quantity, and you’ll undoubtedly be paying a premium for the privilege. The fact is that the additional pixels aren’t going to significantly improve your pics, but the bigger megapixel number is going to impress people who don’t know how cameras work into paying lots of money for this phone. Check out this page for more info and actual examples. Oh, and about this phone… Yeah, it may not be real, but it’s rumored to have GPS and WiFi too. Now that stuff, I can get behind.
I know, I know, you wanted this to be some kind of gun that shoots X-rays and turns you into a superhero. Sorry to disappoint, but all this thing does is grant you X-ray vision. LEXID stands for Lobster-Eye X-ray Inspection Device; the Lobster-Eye bit refers to the way a lobster focuses light, as lobsters focus using reflection, while humans focus using refraction (bending). Lobsters are much better than we are at seeing things in low light environments, and adapting the characteristics of their eyes to an X-ray emitter allows very low power (i.e. safe) X-rays to be used (no lead underwear necessary). The image produced “isn’t high definition TV quality,” but it’s good enough to peep through walls or 75mm steel and see basic shapes (weapons, people, naked people, etc.) on the other side. You probably have already guessed who’s funding this; so far the Deparment of Homeland Security has put about $1 million into it. The LEXID should be ready to go in about a year, and is supposed to be commercially affordable. We’ve never been so close to a legit pair of X-ray specs… I’m totally excited. For, you know, research and stuff.
I’m a person that has two digital cameras. One is a pretty nice Kodak that takes pretty nice shots and has quite a few manual settings which I can adjust for a better picture, the other is a simple HP that doesn’t have a lot of features, but actually fits into my pocket. Both cameras serve me well in different situations. I tend to drool over some of the other cameras on the market, as I know they could do much better than the ones I have. The Sony Spin N Snap is not one of them.
I know that this camera wasn’t designed with picture quality in mind, however, I couldn’t ever see it used for a practical purpose. The camera is made to appeal to the eco-friendly crowd by eliminating the need for an external power source. You have to spin the wheel at the top for 15 seconds, then you can take a picture. That’s a lot of time to spend just for one snapshot. Honestly, I’ll go a month or two without charging up either of my cameras. I think there are more power-hungry gadgets that they might concern themselves with.
The format wars have finally leveled the big guns! Hitachi unveils full HD camera(s) with HDD and Blu-Ray! The DZ-BD7H is a Hybrid Camera Flagship model with a Blu-ray disc drive and a 30 GB built-in hard disc drive (about 4 hours max res and about 8 hours regular) and an 8cm Blu-ray disk recorder, along with the less upgraded DZ-BD70, who comes with only Blu-ray disc capabilities, holding about an hour at max resolution and about two hours at normal resolutions. Both cameras have a 5.3 megapixel CMOS, record video in Full HD 1920×1080 in BD Mode and HDV 1440×1080 in HDD.
Besides the numbers, these sleek new camcorders promise to be the future of obsessive recording. The 8 cm Blu-ray disc has roughly 5 times more capacity than your standard DVD, so these camcorders should prove to be pretty capable. No words on costs or even public release yet, but the world at large seems pretty excited to see what will become of the technological wonder-discs.
Sanyo announced a new rear view backup camera system today that drivers of large vans and SUVs will find appealing. I drive a large vehicle and it is impossible to see what is below the glass and close to the bumper. Anyone that lives in a neighborhood with lots of kids or has kids themselves knows that many little ones are not tall enough to see from inside a big vehicle if they are close to the bumper.
Sanyo’s new CCA-BC200 Rear View Backup Camera System with AirCam technology uses digital processing to deliver accurate and natural looking images of what is behind you. That means you don’t have to look at strangely distorted fish-eye type images.
The only bad part about this system is that a monitor for viewing the video feed isn’t included, nor is a monitor an option. The Sanyo system relies completely on the fact that many vehicles have onboard displays for DVDs and GPS navigation. If your vehicle lacks a display of some sort you will need to add one for the Sanyo system to work. Pricing for the camera system is $299.99 and it is available now.
ThinkGeek, those fine purveyors of gadgets you don’t need but always want has just added this USB microscope to their site. It uses a single lens for 20x, 50x or 200x magnification which makes me think there could be some digital zoom action going on but the samples they’ve posted on their site still look pretty decent.
There are 4 white LEDs built into the tip of the camera for extra illumination and the microscope can be removed from the stand if you want to go in for a closer look. It also includes software allowing you to take 1024×768 pixel snapshots or even record time-lapse videos. And while it’s conveniently plug and play for some reason it only supports USB 1.1.
It’s available now on the ThinkGeek website for $179.99.
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By Evan Ackerman
By Andrew Liszewski
