Technology Nerd » camera

NYU Researchers Develop Invisible Flash – Shoot Pictures in the Dark!

Shahbaaz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:02:49 +0000

If you got the fancy of photographing in the dark and chilling out with your friends in the night, for a barbeque in the lawn or just camping in the woods, then freezing the fun on a photo would be actually a little difficult, given the bright bulb spots and inadequate light ambience.

No matter how good your camera and its bright flash are and whatever good your photography is, you’ll always get shots that are not-so-perfect and then you comfort yourself reiterating a belief that “nice pic…it would have been still better if it wasn’t dark”.

Then these two guys from New York University , Robert Fergus and Dilip Krishnan answer the call of many a million like you. They have come with a camera that takes pictures in the dark without a flash. Yes, it’s possible now with the so called “Dark Flash” technology they have used to create the camera and will publicly elaborate on it at Siggraph Conference 2009, New Orleans this August.

Photography Pioneer : Images Shot Using Invisible Flash Camera

This invisible flash makes use of the light rays outside the visible spectrum to reproduce the subject on in an image. The Invisible Flash Camera actually uses a flash bulb that has been modified to emit light in wider ranges and filtering out the visible spectrum. The camera’s image sensor detecting IR and UV rays have also been removed to match with the technology.

But, once the picture is shot using the camera with invisiblef lash, the pictures seem to have an improper color balance, reportedly, like the ones shot using night-vision scope. So, immediately after the first shot with dark flash, the camera captures a second shot of the subject without flash.

Using a software to merge the darker image from the second shot and the image shot with invisible flash, a finer real image is obtained.Though this is impressive enough,there is a minor problem with this. The objects that absorb both UV and IR would not light up in the image, thus leaving the developers of the dark flash camera a room for improvement.

If shooting images in the dark is possible, we can expect that similar technology can be applied to video recording using dark flash as well, but we cannot expect it to hit the markets very soon, not at least the some big fish in the market like Canon, Sony or Casio is willing to embrace this technology and produce the Invisible Flash Camera.

View the complete NYU Study (.pdf) here.

Lights. Camera. Action!

Tags: camera, Dark Flash, invisible flash, invisible flash camera, Siggraph Con

LUMIX DMC-G1: The world’s first smallest lightest Micro Four Thirds System interchangeable lens camera

Vivek — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:48:23 +0000

I have been caught in the argument more than once whether one should go for a point and shoot/compact camera or should they go for a DSLR. With the price difference depleting dramatically between the two affording either of them is not much of concern. However, if you wish you had a hybrid of a compact camera with features of a DSLR, your wish has been fulfilled by Olympus and Panasonic.

They have recently announced a new camera standard called as Micro Four Thirds System standard. We however are not going to focus on this announcement or technology. If you want to know more about the Micro Four Thirds System standard you might wanna check this wiki out. Just a couple of days back Panasonic announced the first camera based on Micro Four Thirds System standard – Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G1. The company claims that Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G1
is
the world’s
lightest and smallest
digital interchangeable
lens cameraLUMIX DMC-G1 is the world’s lightest and smallest digital interchangeable lens camera, weighing approximately 385 grams (0.85 lbs).

In the press release Panasonic said:

With the LUMIX G1, we are filling a void that has existed for a long time in the digital camera market, because consumers wanted the power of an SLR, but previous models were bulky and inconvenient,
Tags: camera, compact camera, DMC-G, dslr, Micro Four Thirds System standard, panasonic lumix dmc, Panasonic LUMIX DMC-G1, point and shoot camera, world's lightest and smallest digital interchangeable l

Leaf AFi-II: Get serious about photography

Vivek — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:27:31 +0000

Although I cannot afford most of the gears for serious DSLR photography, I still like to keep track of the photography world. I came across something neat yesterday and thought it’s worth writing about. Leaf has launched a new series of medium format camera and camera backs. The series is Leaf AFi-II 6, 7 and 10 digital camera systems and the Leaf Aptus-II 6, 7 and 10 digital camera backs.

Just in case you don’t know what a medium format camera is, wikipedia is there to help:

In digital photography, medium format refers either to cameras adapted from medium format film photography uses, or to cameras making use of sensors larger than that of a 35
Tags: camera, digital camera systems, digital cameras, dslr, medium format cameras, medium frame cameras, Photography

3D Photography is now a reality, take a look

Abbas — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:05:32 +0000

Most of us are fascinated with photography and since the digitalization of pictures and cameras happened more and more armature and budding photographers aspire to be professional some day. With all the advancements happening in the field of Photography we are beginning to see features we’ve never seen before.

From what I have seen and known I think Stanford is one of the universities which is majorly researching on imagery and photography. Keith Fife and his team at Stanford have developed a new technology which is called multi-aperture image sensor.

Instead of taking one big picture this technology breaks the entire picture into small 16×16 patches which are overlapping each other, this is called subarrays. The way it works is that the sensor is measures the distance of each patch from lens to object and arrange accordingly.

Attempts have been made in the past to achieve 3D imagery or stereoscopic imaging and the following image shows one of the cameras developed few years ago to take 3D Images. The technology is developed by a company called 3D World and is available in the market now. Click here to visit the product page.

Another attempt was made by Adobe which is working on a similar technology. Click on the following link to view the video. AudioBlog.fr

Few months ago I watched a video on Scoble Show based on research of Marc Levoy, a professor at Stanford University. I was amazed at the things he demonstrated during the interview and it shows the kind of technology and features we can expect to see on our cameras in the future.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy
http://home.comcast.net/~jlballou/stereoaerial/sfmcc.html (examples of 3D Images)
http://isl.stanford.edu/groups/elgamal/people/kfife/

Excited about the future of Photography? Me too!

Tags: 3D Images, camera, digital, Photography, Stanford University, Stereoscopic Imaging

WebCam Tricks: Things You Always Wanted to do with your WebCam!

Abbas — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 08:58:00 +0000

This article will help you do several things with your web cam which you always wanted to do but couldn’t. Alright! Here you go….

How to record or capture video chats or webcams? You have been chatting which the coolest chick in the world and because you are a geek you friends wont believe you if they don’t see it (that’s lame, lets try another one). You are in a important meeting and there are several things you want to remember from the meeting, what do you do? Record the video chat?

That’s exactly what YCC Cam Cap lets you do. It automatically saves the streaming video to an .avi file on your computer for later references. To visit the download page click here or click here to download the application directly. WebCam Companion is another software which is free and offers more features. It lets you capture, edit, print and share photos and videos from your Webcam.

How to setup live streaming on a website? Let’s say you want to add live streaming of your web cam to a site or a web page. What do you do? You download CoffeeCup WebCam 4 for windows. This is not a free software but you can certainly try a full version of this software for free. Click here to read more and download the software’s.

Here is another one. “How to use a webcam with more than one application at a time?” CamSplitter will help you split your cam with different applications. This will be helpful in case you have two friends, one on Yahoo and another on MSN. Using this software you can have a video chat with both of them. Click here to visit the download page or here to download the software directly. This software will cost you around $30 but you can try it for free.

How to convert a web Cam to a security camera? Download and install 123Motion this will help you setup a cheap but effective security system at home. 123Motion is capable of doing a lot of intelligent things like Motion Detection, Capturing images are regular intervals, capture images and send e-mails, upload images to ftp, sound the alarm, etc… Click here to visit the download page or here to download it directly.

How to create video greetings or change backgrounds using Webcam? WebcamMax is one of the softwares which will let you do multiple things such as change the background, create greetings, add images, record and share videos, etc.. the coolest thing about the software is it lets you change background while a live video chat is on. Click here to visit the download page or here to directly download.

I hope this article helps you do a lot of things you always wanted to do!

Tags: camera, Download, How to Webcam, Videos, WebCam Tricks, Yahoo

3DV’s ZCam beats Nintendo Wii in the game (Watch the Video)

Abbas — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:09:30 +0000

Replace your Nintendo Wii which a camera (3DV Systems – ZCam) which recognizes your actions and gestures. How cool is that! 3DV Systems is a technology company with a vision for future and focused on next generation technologies.

3DV Systems have developed a technology which measures the depth of the objects in real time. This technology enables applications to capture object shapes in dynamically defined 3D Space.

What this technology means to a common man? This means the future of interacting with electronics is about to become really easy and effortless. We won’t require and IR enabled remote controls because the gadgets and electronics will begin to recognize your hand gestures and act accordingly.

This is what the company has to say about the future of the technology they have invented.

“3DV is currently focused on bringing the vision of next generation immersive man-machine interface come true in the worlds of gaming and web-conferencing, through introducing outstanding gesture recognition and personalization capabilities. At the same time, the company offers breakthrough solutions for the automotive-safety, security and robotics markets, based on the capability to detect objects (e.g. faces) at high precision and in changing environments.

Looking ahead, we see our video imaging technology playing a key role in shaping the interface of next-generation mobile devices and in the "Digital Home".”

This technology was also showcased at the CES in Las Vegas, However the release date and the pricing of the camera was not reveled. I have written to the team inquiring about the product, will update the post once I have more information.

Watch the following video to see the camera in action.

The future is bright!

Tags: 3DV System, camera, digital, ZCam

Spy Gadget : Smoking not so injurious to health

Sai — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:35:56 +0000

Technology not only brings some great innovations and imaginations to life but also some style and sleekness.

When I read about this product, it reminded of a secret agent like Sherlock Holmes and a techy hero like James Bond.
A best gadget to spy if you are a secret agent or aspire to be one and costs just 170$.

This is a hi tech digital camera that does not look like a camera but a cigarette lighter!
The best part being its capacity of holding up to 300 images.

It has almost all the features that any digital camera does :

Voice recording
Video recording with sound and
LiteSync technology which means that it enhances indoor lighting in low-light conditions.

To know the specifications, click here.

Tags: camera, cigarette lighter, digital, Litesync, secret agent, sleek, spy

Flickr’s Camera Finder – Most Popular Camera

Abbas — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:09:38 +0000

Flickr.com recently introduced a new feature for the photography lovers in all categories. Flickr being one of the mostly used photo sharing, hosting and blogging service is making the right use of information available. The new feature is called “Camera Finder”

This feature lets the users see which camera is being most widely used for clicking pictures in other words most popular camera on Flickr community. These cameras are divided in 3 broad categories, 1) Pro SLR/DSLR 2) Point and Shoot and 3) Phone Cameras. Flickr is gathering this information from the EXIF data associated with every picture which is uploaded to the site.

This is a useful feature which might help upcoming photographers who are climbing up the ladder of professional photography and trying out new photography gadgets and cameras. It will give them a chance to browse through pictures based on the camera and decide based on the picture quality and at the end of the day knowing which camera is being mostly used can be a tie breaker.

Click here to access Flickr’s camera page!

Tags: camera, Flickr, Yahoo