MeCam – $49.99 Wearable HD Camera

Yes, yesterday I already talked about MeCam, the self video nano copter, and no, this is not a double post, as the MeCam is also another product (this may keep some lawyers busy, or maybe not), which you can pin on your clothes, or wear as necklace, that shots 720p videos, or take 5MP still pictures by the press of a button. The MeCam comes with 3 buttons: Power Button- To power on/off the device and enter standby mode. Video Button – To start/stop video capture. Photograph Button – To take photos, or enable/disable IR mode (Long press). IR (InfraRed) mode allows you to shoot videos or take pictures at night. To transfer your media files to you computer, you can either copy the files from the removable microSD card (4 to 16GB), or transfer them via USB. You can watch the promo video below to see the MeCam in […]

Always Innovating MeCam is a $49 Voice-Controlled Nanocopter Camera

Earlier today, I’ve posted a list of some interesting sessions for the upcoming ELC 2013, and one of the talk entitled “Lessons Learned in Designing a Self-video Self-hovering Nano Copter” by Gregoire Gentil, Always Innovating CEO, caught my attention. In this presentation, he will talk about the technical challenges the company encountered when they designed MeCam, a self video nano copter to point-and-shoot yourself, that should sell for just $49 retail. The MeCam launches from the palm of a hand and hovers instantly. It streams video to an Android or iOS phone or tablet that can be easily shared on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. There’s no remote control for the MeCam as it’s either controlled by voice commands, or it can be setup to follow you around thanks to the follow-me feature. It can also do panorama shots automatically. The products is still in […]

Ambarella Unveils A9 4K Ultra HD Camera SoC

Ambarella has recently today introduced the A9 camera System on Chip (SoC) with support for the new 4K Ultra HD video standard in order to power next generation of mirrorless, sports, and digital still cameras. Ambarella A9 SoC features two ARM Cortex A9 cores (surprisingly), as well as Ambarella Image and Video DSPs. The A9’s video features include video timelapse modes, capture of high-resolution still images during video recording, Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS), and burst capture of up to sixty 12-megapixel still images per second. Ultra-wide angle and small form factor lenses are supported with full lens distortion correction. The A9 also support High Dynamic Range (HDR) video. Ambarella A9 Feature Summary: 4K Ultra HD video recording @ 30 fps. High definition video recording at 720p @ 240fps and 1080p @ 120fps. Burst mode support for still image capture of over 700 Megapixels per second. Multi-exposure High Dynamic Range (HDR) […]

Nvidia GRID Platform, Tegra 4 Processor and Project SHIELD Game Console at CES 2013

CES 2013 has finally started, and Nvidia has had a pretty amazing keynote with some PC gaming announcements such as “GeForce Experience” which is a piece a software that can configure your games settings automatically based on your PC hardware (e.g. processor and GPU), and 3 cloud and mobile devices announcements: Nvidia GRID Platform – Cloud Gaming Server with 240 Nvidia GPUs. Nvidia Tegra 4 – Nvidia 4 cores Cortex A15 , 72 GPU and SDR modem SoC for tablets and smartphones. Nvidia Project Shield – Game console with a 5″ display powered by Tegra 4 that can also act as a game controller, and play PC games on your TV. Nvidia GRID Platform NVIDIA GRID Cloud Gaming Platform is comprised of 20 GRID server per rack with a total of 240 Nvidia GPU capable of 200 TFLOPS or the equivalent of 700 Xbox 360. Nvidia GRID render 3D graphics […]

Samsung Unveils EK-GC100 Galaxy Camera Running Android 4.1

Following Nikon steps with its Coolpix S800c, Samsung announced their own Android camera. Samsung EK-GC100 camera features an Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 processor, a 4.8″ touchscreen display (1280×720), Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G connectivity (depending on model), a 16MP camera with a 21X optical zoom, and runs Android Jelly Bean. Samsung Galaxy Camera specifications: OS – Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) Processor –  1.4GHz Quad-Core processor Memory – 8GB + memory slot : micro SDSC, micro SDHC, micro SDXC Display – 121.2 mm (4.8″), 308 ppi, HD Super Clear Touch Display Image Sensor – 16.3 effective megapixel 1/2.3″ BSI CMOS Lens –  F2.8, 23 mm, 21x super long zoom IS –  OIS (cnxsoft: what is that?) (Optical Image Stabilization) – See Ganesh comment below for details explanation, in case you don’t know this. ISO – Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 Network – 4G, 3G (HSPA+ 21Mbps): 850 […]

Nikon Announces Coolpix S800c Android 2.3 Camera

Nikon announced the first Android camera to hit the market. The Coolpix S800c is a 16 MP Wi-Fi camera powered by an unnamed ARM Cortex A9 processor with 512 MB RAM running Android 2.3.3 that will sell for $349. The S800c is basically a smartphone without the voice network capabilities, but with a proper camera capable of shooting clear pictures and videos, and a 10x optical zoom. Nikon also included a GPS to add localization info to pictures. Nikon lists the primary features of their Android camera as follows: Android 2.3 and Wi-Fi Simple setup and connection Browse and post to social networking sites (SNS) such as Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Support for Google Play and built-in Google apps Simple image transfer to other smart devices via “Upload to Smart Device” app. Better shooting performance and images quality and definition (compared to a smartphone). 10x optical zoom, NIKKOR lens and […]

e-con Systems Unveils e-CAM51_USB 5MP USB Camera Module

e-con Systems, an embedded design services company specializing in the development of camera solutions, has just announced the launch of e-CAM51_USB USB Camera comprised of a 5-megapixel Autofocus Camera Module (e-CAM52_5640_MOD) based on OmniVision OV5640 CMOS image sensor.This camera module targets document camera visualizers, interactive teaching & meeting solutions, OCR, scientific research, telemedicine/health, biometrics and robotics applications. The e-CAM51_USB camera module supports GPIO and microphone with an integrated analog-to-digital converter (ADC).  It does not require specific drivers since it is compliant with USB Video Class (UVC) and USB Audio Class (UAC). OmniVision OV5640 CameraChip sensor features automatic image control functions such as: Automatic exposure control (AEC) Automatic white balance (AWB) Automatic band filter (ABF) 50/60Hz automatic luminance detection Automatic black level calibration (ABLC) Most of these features are supported via the standard UVC protocol providing good applications interoperability on Linux and Windows. Some e-CAM51_USB features such as GPIO control, Auto […]

Raspberry Pi Camera Module Up and Running. Retail Version Coming Soon

The Raspberry Pi foundation is working on a camera module for the Raspberry Pi board and today they showed the very first picture taken with the “PiCam” module. The picture below has been taken with a camera module connected via the MIPI CSI-2 interface of the Raspberry Pi. On another subject, if you look closely at the top left of the picture, you can see the Raspberry Pi foundation (and probably Broadcom) uses Synopsys MetaWare Debugger  (and Compiler?) to work on the software and fix bugs. Maybe more on that later… The camera module used supports up to 14 Mpixel resolution, but the final module will most probably have a 5MP resolution in order to make it cheaper. The mechanical design is not complete and the foundation does not have a price for the camera module yet. You can see what the 14MP camera module looks like (it’s basically a […]

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