Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts

2012-04-24

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope needs World’s Largest Digital Camera

World's largest 3.2 billion-pixel digital camera project passes critical milestone


The LSST camera will be the largest digital camera ever constructed. Its size of roughly five feet by 10 feet is similar to that of a small car and it will weigh over three tons. It is a large-aperture, wide-field optical imager designed to provide a 3.5° field of view with better than 0.2 arcsecond sampling. The image surface is flat with a diameter of just over two feet. The detector format will be a mosaic of 16 megapixel silicon detectors providing a total of approximately 3.2 billion pixels. Credit: Image Courtesy of the LSST Corporation

symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » World’s largest digital camera one step closer to reality


A digital rendering of the LSST instrument, with human figures for scale. (Image courtesy LSST Corporation/NOAO)

Perched high atop Cerro Pachón in the Chilean Andes, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will take the largest, fastest, most detailed pictures of the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky. With these images, researchers around the world will seek to reveal the nature of dark matter and dark energy—and to answer a host of other questions in astronomy and physics.

To do all this, LSST needs the largest digital camera ever built: a 3.2 billion-pixel behemoth that stands 6 feet tall and weighs more than 6000 pounds. Now, this impressive instrument has taken a significant step toward reality by receiving the Department of Energy’s “Critical Decision 1” approval.

The New Sky | LSST

LARGE:

A large primary mirror, the world’s largest digital camera, images that cover 49 times the area of the Moon in a single exposure, the largest public data set in the world—LSST takes advantage of new technologies to provide a qualitatively new capability for astronomy.

SYNOPTIC:

A color movie of the universe.
A view of the whole visible southern sky and its changes over ten years.

SURVEY:

Orbits of asteroids as small as 100 meters that might impact the Earth, properties of the dark energy that powers the accelerating expansion of the universe, 3-D mass maps of dark matter, how the Milky Way formed, the nature of rare, explosive events—all will be products of the LSST survey.

TELESCOPE:

Work on the telescope and its Chilean site are underway.


CAMERA | LSST



LSST camera


with 6' person for scale


Source: CAMERA | LSST


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2012-01-07

3D Cameras for Cellphones with CoDAC: Compressive Depth Acquisition

Depth map - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 3D computer graphics a depth map is an image or image channel that contains information relating to the distance of the surfaces of scene objects from a viewpoint.

Depth Map: Nearer is darker


3-D cameras for cellphones - MIT News Office

Clever math could enable a high-quality 3-D camera so simple, cheap and power-efficient that it could be incorporated into handheld devices.
The MIT researchers’ system [...] uses only a single light detector — a one-pixel camera. But by using some clever mathematical tricks, it can get away with firing the laser a limited number of times.
[...]
Indeed, the algorithm lets the researchers get away with relatively crude hardware. Their system measures the time of flight of photons using a cheap photodetector and an ordinary analog-to-digital converter — an off-the-shelf component already found in all cellphones. The sensor takes about 0.7 nanoseconds to register a change to its input.

STIR CoDAC Project Page


CoDAC: Compressive Depth Acquisition Camera
CoDAC is a new time-of-flight based range measurement system for acquiring depth maps of piecewise-planar scenes with high spatial resolution using a single, omnidirectional, time-resolved photodetector and no scanning components. [...]
[...]
Our technique, CoDAC, is based on the TOF distance measurement principle. In contrast to a regular TOF camera, CoDAC uses a pulsed light source to illuminate a spatial light modulator. The spatial light modulator selectively illuminates the scene with a randomly-chosen checkerboard pattern by selectively blocking some of the light. All the light reflected from the scene is focused at a single, time-resolved photodetector. The photodetector produces an electrical signal, which is in turn sampled and stored. This process of illumination, integration and sampling is repeated for a small number of randomly-chosen binary patterns. Finally, the time samples collected through this acquisition are computationally processed using a parametric signal processing framework to reconstruct the scene depth map.




Kinect comes to Smart Phones?




It will be a little time before a commercial system is available - at the moment the MIT team is working on extending the method to curved surfaces - but Intel has already invested $100,000 as part of its innovation Fellowship program.
Having portable depth detectors small enough to fit in a mobile phone really would open up a whole new world of apps.


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2011-03-10

Panasonic Lumix FX77 Beautifying Camera


New Camera Will Beautify You?

Panasonic's new cam will even add makeup to your face


The LUMIX FX77 has a “beauty re-touch” function that will deliver on the traditional “beauty” front – it whitens teeth, removes dark eye circles, makes your face look smaller, your skin more translucent and your eyes bigger.




DMC-FX78/DMC-FX77 | PRODUCTS | LUMIX | Digital Camera | Panasonic Global

Cosmetic Mode

The Cosmetic Mode allows to take portraits with favored skin color (soft skin, natural skin, summer look) and degree of transparency of skin detail (low, standard, high). This makes it possible to take portraits with different impression of skin. For example, you can look yourself suntanned even if you’re not, or you can defocus the unwanted wrinkles or mottles like having underlight for studio photoshoot.

Beauty Retouch Mode

The Beauty Retouch Mode makes it possible to virtually makeup the faces. In Esthetic Mode, various effects can be applied to the face including clearing the skin texture, whitening of teeth and so on. In the Make-up Mode, you can choose the color of foundation, lips, cheeks or eye-shadow.

Panasonic Lumix FX77 – the first digital camera with integrated beauty parlour  - The Red Ferret Journal

The new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX77 is more than just a conventional 12.1 megapixel point and shoot digital camera. It’s the first digicam to feature an integrated beauty salon, which uses face recognition to let you edit your subject’s face in camera. In this regard, it’s clearly the first salvo in a fight back by the dedicated camera makers against mobile phone cameras stealing their market share.





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2010-05-06

InVisage QuantumFilm Image Sensor

DEMO: InVisage’s QuantumFilm enables gorgeous camera phone pictures

Based on a new kind of image sensor technology from chip startup InVisage Technologies, QuantumFilm can deliver mobile phone camera images that are four times sharper than today’s cameras, with twice the dynamic range, or the ability to have both dark and light features in the same picture.

No longer will you have to put up with a bulky camera with a long lens to get good quality pictures. If the iPhone used these chips, it would be able to take 12 megapixel pictures with better quality features, compared to the 3-megapixel pictures it can currently take. With such quality, many consumers might opt for carrying only camera phones.





InVisage 


QuantumFilm Technology

Harnessing the power of custom-designed semiconductor materials, InVisage has created a new generation of QuantumFilm based image sensors. In the early days of photography film based cameras were used....
Collected from: InVisage


Essentially, the technology works by adding a new finely tuned light-sensitive layer on top of the silicon chip, Lee said. That layer is more efficient at converting incoming light into electrical signals, and the light isn't partially blocked by a microprocessor's metallic layers, either.

 [...]

The quantum-dot layer is sandwiched between conventional image sensor technology. One one side is conventional circuitry for reading data off an image sensor, and on the other is the color filter array that means each pixel receives only red, blue, or green light.

What is a quantum dot exactly? "It's a semiconductor particle made to be precisely nanometers in size. By controlling its size, you can change its core semiconductor property, called band gap," which is a specific amount of energy it takes to get an electron into a higher-energy state. QuantumFilm's materials are specifically tuned to be sensitive to the energy from the photons of visible light.

Conventional CMOS image sensors use the silicon semiconductor layer at the bottom of a chip to gather light, somewhat inefficiently. InVisage believes its QuantumFilm approach, which gathers light at the top layer with precisely made quantum dots in a thin film, is superior.
(Credit: InVisage)

DEMO Spring 2010: InVisage Technologies



InVisage Technologies shows off its QuantumFilm manufacturing process



Sources:
  1. DEMO: InVisage’s QuantumFilm enables gorgeous camera phone pictures | VentureBeat
  2. InVisage
  3. InVisage aims to remake camera sensor market | Deep Tech - CNET News
  4. YouTube - DEMO Spring 2010: InVisage Technologies
  5. YouTube - InVisage Technologies shows off its QuantumFilm manufacturing process
Related:
  1. InVisage QuantumFilm revolutionizes image sensors
  2. EETimes.com - Quantum film threatens to replace CMOS image chips
  3. Cameraphone Photo Quality Set To Improve With InVisage's QuantumFilm Chips - Invisage technologies quantumfilm - Gizmodo
  4. InVisage QuantumFilm promises 4x cameraphone sharpness [Video] - SlashGear
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2009-11-13

The Intel Reader

clipped from news.cnet.com

Intel debuts text reader for the blind

The company announced on Tuesday the debut of the Intel Reader, a handheld text-to-speech device that can read any printed text aloud to those who are blind or have difficulties seeing or reading.

The Atom-powered device uses a high-resolution camera to capture images of any printed text, which it then converts into digital format to read out loud. The Reader can be used as a standalone device to snap pictures of text. But paired with Intel's Portable Capture Station, which can hold the Reader in place, the device can grab huge amounts of text, such as an entire book, according to Intel.

A camera that reads text aloud

intel-reader

Ben Foss, director of access technology in Intel's Digital Health Group, uses the Intel Reader to scan a book. Photo: Jon Fortt.

intel-reader1

The Intel Reader has a 4.3-inch LCD display, 4 gigabytes of flash storage and USB slots for adding more. It weighs 1.38 pounds. Image: Intel.

clipped from www.youtube.com

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clipped from www.intel.com
Logo - Intel

Intel News Release

Ready, Set, Read: Intel® Reader Transforms Printed Text to Spoken Word


Intel Launches Mobile Handheld Device for People with Reading-Based Disabilities, such as Dyslexia or Low-Vision, or for Those Who are Blind


  • The new Intel Reader (reader.intel.com), a mobile handheld device, increases independence for people with reading-based disabilities.

  • The size of a paperback book, the Intel Reader converts printed text to digital text and then reads it aloud to the user.

  • The Intel Reader can help the estimated 55 million people in the U.S. who have specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia or vision problems.

clipped from www.intel.com

New Intel® Reader Transforms the Printed Word

Download the Intel® Reader brochure

Blind & low vision versionFiletype/Size: PDF 301KB
Educator versionFiletype/Size: PDF 286KB

clipped from www.intel.com

Features And Technical Specs

Intel® Reader Features
Features

A more in-depth look

Learn more

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Sources
  1. Intel debuts text reader for the blind | Digital Media - CNET News
  2. A camera that reads text aloud - Big Tech - Fortune Brainstorm Tech
  3. YouTube - The Intel Reader
  4. Ready, Set, Read: Intel® Reader Transforms Printed Text to Spoken Word
  5. Intel® Reader - About the Intel® Reader
  6. Intel® Reader - Intel® Reader Features
Related:
  1. Intel Sells Its Own Reader for the Health Care Market - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
  2. Intel introduces a digital book reader that reads aloud to the blind | VentureBeat
  3. Intel punts portable text reader for the blind • The Register
  4. Intel Reader Speaks Printed Words Aloud - Reviews by PC Magazine
  5. Intel Reader combines camera and text-to-speech functions | The Toybox | ZDNet.com
  6. Introducing the $1,500 Intel e-book reader
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2009-04-30

World's Fastest Camera

Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Debut for world's fastest camera
British Broadcasting Corporation

Debut for world's fastest camera

The fastest imaging system ever devised has been demonstrated by researchers reporting in the journal Nature.

Their camera's "shutter speed" is just a half a billionth of a second, and it can capture over six million images in a second continuously.

Its "flashbulb" is a fast laser pulse dispersed in space and then stretched in time and detected electronically.





The technique hinges on an ordered spreading of the colours in laser light

Clipped from: Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers | Wired Science

Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers




Scientists have made the fastest camera ever. It can take 6.1 million pictures in a single second, at a shutter speed of 440 trillionths of a second. Light itself moves just a fraction of a centimeter in that time.

The camera works by illuminating objects with a laser that emits a different infrared frequency for every single pixel, allowing them to custom-amplify a signal that would otherwise be too dim to see.

Clipped from: YouTube - World's Fastest Camera




Clipped from: World's fastest camera : Nature News

Speedy snapshots captured using laser light.


The new camera can take snaps every 163 nanoseconds.


The team captured pictures of tiny beads moving through microfluidic channels.

Clipped from: Keisuke Goda @ UCLA

Welcome to Keisuke Goda @ UCLA

Keisuke Goda is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Optoelectronic Circuits and Systems Laboratory led by Prof. Bahram Jalali in the Department of Electrical Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests lie in the fields of optoelectronics, biomedical optics, and silicon photonics for biomedical and defense applications. For more information about his ongoing research projects, go to the Research page.



STEAM - the world's fastest camera demonstrated

Sources:
  1. BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Debut for world's fastest camera
  2. Fastest Camera Ever Built Uses Lasers | Wired Science
  3. YouTube - World's Fastest Camera
  4. World's fastest camera : Nature News
  5. Keisuke Goda @ UCLA

Related:
  1. UCLA: Optoelectronic Circuits and Systems Laboratory
  2. Serial time-encoded amplified imaging for real-time observation of fast dynamic phenomena : Abstract : Nature
  3. Keisuke Goda @ UCLA
  4. “World’s Fastest Camera” Snaps 6 Million Pictures in a Single Second | 80beats | Discover Magazine


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2009-03-06

Vue -- Avaak Wireless Camera System

Vue Personal Video Network
Vue Personal Video Network
Avaak has developed a wireless multi-camera system called the Vue Personal Video Network. The Vue is designed for home monitoring, but may garner interest in the business world as well.
BusinessWeek logo

Debuts at DEMO

Avaak
clipped from www.youtube.com

eWEEK Interviews Avaak at DEMO 09

clipped from www.youtube.com

New Avaak wireless camera system puts low-cost video to...

clipped from vuezone.com
Home

Simple Setup


Vue is incredibly simple to setup. You'll be viewing remote live video in minutes. Take a look...



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Related:
Vue Personal Video Network
Debuts at DEMO: Avaak - BusinessWeek
VueZone | Personal Video Network
Vue mesh network video system hands-on
Free Video - Business and personal finance news from Fortune
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2009-03-01

MITRE -- Head Tracking Visual Telepresence

Clipped from: YouTube - MITRE Immersive Vision System

MITRE Immersive Vision System

Demonstration of a highly responsive head tracked vision system used for visual telepresence.
http://www.mitre.org/news/digest/adva...

"With remote robot interaction we can use visual telepresence to trick users' brains into thinking their eyes have been transported onto the robot," says Kyle Fawcett. "This unlocks the brain's natural ability to build a mental model of the remote environment. The better our vision system mimics interaction with the remote environment, the more we tap into our brain's natural spatial mapping abilities."




Clipped from: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: MITRE immersive spherical vision system

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

MITRE immersive spherical vision system

MITRE scientists have worked out a solution to this latency problem replacing the limited field of view camera on the pan-tilt unit with a spherical vision camera which has no moving parts. The camera of choice is the Ladybug commercially sold by Point Grey Research in Canada. Stanford's Urban Challenge autonomous car also used the same camera for part of its perception system. This spherical vision system consists of 6 cameras which capture images simultaneously covering a large portion of the view sphere around it. Software stitches the images together into a single view in real-time. These spherical vision images are then available to the operator to view for any orientation of his head.

Clipped from: MITRE - News and Events - MITRE Publications - The MITRE Digest - Advanced Research - Immersive Vision Gives the Best Control to Military Robots

MITRE

Immersive Vision Gives the Best Control to Military Robots









Related:
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: MITRE immersive spherical vision system
MITRE - News and Events - MITRE Publications - The MITRE Digest - Advanced Research - Immersive Vision Gives the Best Control to Military Robots
MITRE develops hemispheric camera for visual telepresence - Engadget
Point Grey Research, Inc. - Digital Cameras for Industrial, Machine, and Computer Vision
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