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As the military industrial complex surges forward, so do develops in technology for the public sector. At lowest that is how the cold-war wisdom goes. Case in point: QinetiQ is developing a lens-less, mirror-less, battlefield imaging approach amongst chosen boon out of your DARPA’s deep pockets. The LACOSTE expect (Large Area Coverage Optical Search additonally Track and Engage) aims to set aloft high-altitude (about 20km) drones and air-ships fitted amongst a special, thousand-strong microscopic sensor array (a “first of such a kind,” according to QinetiQ), a “mask,” and image processor to decode the scene and extract an image of the speedily turning circumstances on the battlefield or, you foreseen it, city streets. The resulting lightweight and highly-durable process can feature a “super resolution” mode providing the ability to “detect and simultaneously track substantial ranges of moving vehicles in dense urban regions amid a exorbitant degree of accuracy, 24-hours a day.” And right here you notion CCTV was intrusive.

Usually it’s not all that noteworthy when a popular product drops one of its features, but when that device is the Treo 680, and that feature is the VGA camera, then it’s certainly notable to your security-conscious businessfolk. Even though this is the Treo that’s supposed to draw in the non-techie consumer — and even though this SKU is barely advertised — Brighthand is reporting that a camera-less 680 is indeed available, although you’ll have to make a few phone calls if you want to to secure one. As usual, you’re gonna pay the same amount whether you want the cam or not, so don’t think you’re gonna save any loot by forgoing the crappy shooter. Hit the Read link for more details, or more specifically, for actual proof that this mythical creature exists (hint: peep the small footnotes at the bottom of the page).

[Via Brighthand]

Though certainly not the first gizmo designed with aerial photography in mind, the Aeryon Scout is a notch above most alternatives. The hovering platform enables users to capture still shots and log digital video from up above, and while it can be controlled remotely, we’re also hearing that autonomous navigation isn’t totally out of reach. Currently, the device is still looking to escape the prototype stage, but its creators are already eying police forces, security firms and surveying / engineering businesses in hopes of landing a few clients. Considering the stunningly high $30,000 to $50,000 price tag, we’d say they’re looking in the right (read: only) direction.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets, image courtesy of InventorSpot]

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Samsung’s been getting pretty creative with cell cameras lately — the Instinct lets you pan around web pages by tracking movement with the camera, for example — but the company’s latest patent application, for a gesture-based phone interface, might be a little less practical. The idea is to use the phone’s camera to track your hand movements, which, from the drawings, should have you looking insane on the subway in no time. Of course, we’ve all been guilty of waving at and even talking to our devices when they’re acting up, so maybe a little feedback wouldn’t be a bad thing — there’s one gesture we’d definitely like to see programmed in there.

source

RED is really going all out at NAB this year. In addition to that Scarlet 3K “pocket” camera, the RED ONE is getting seriously one-upped by the new top-of-the-line RED EPIC. This 5K camera has a full-frame S35mm Mysterium X sensor, and pretty much matches 35mm film resolution — RED ONE topped out at 4K. FPS is limited to 100, which is to be expected with all those pixels to handle, but other features match that of other RED cams. Of course, the promise of the RED ONE “rendering obsolescence obsolete” has been slightly trampled by EPIC, but the good news is that RED will allow ONE customers to trade in their cameras for a full $17,500 credit towards the EPIC when it ships in 2009. Price? About $30,000.

source:engadget

Sony Ericsson released in 2006 its new generation of cellular phones that are now marked with their famous “Cyber-shot” tag name.

The K800i, along with its variant K790, feature a 3.2 megapixel digital camera complete with a xenon flash, a protective lens cover, and a “BestPic” feature that takes nine full-quality snapshots in quick succession (thus allowing the user to choose the best shots from them). Not only these camera phones are a photographic masterpieces, these are also equipped with a multi-format media player, FM radio, and expandable memory slot.The main difference between the K800i and the K790 is the system it supports. The former is capable of GSM and UMTS (or 3G) that enables the user to conduct video conferencing, while the latter unit supports GSM and EDGE (or Advanced GPRS) with improved data transmission.

Both phones weigh 115 grams, with a “dual-front” design common among recent Sony Ericsson phones, with the back part designed like a digital camera and intended to be held sideways when taking photographs.

It also have a 262,144-color display measuring two inches diagonally, a five-way joystick that doubles as a shortcut to several functions, as well as other quick-access keys such as one that launches the Web browser and another one to activate the music player.

The phone book can hold a respectable 1,000 contacts, each can carry up to five phone numbers, Web and e-mail addresses among other information. The camera phones also come with a bounty of business-friendly features such as Bluetooth connectivity, an RSS news reader, an infrared port, USB cable support, and even video streaming for K800i.

Despite all these good stuff, the K800i and K790 have a low call volume (up to just 2 hours in K800i using 3G), as well as a sluggish menu navigation. But overall, the Sony Ericssion K800i and K790 offer superior features, excellent photo quality, and laudable performance.

One of the newest releases in Canon’s Powershot series is the Canon Powershot SD870 IS. It came out the second half of 2007 and debuted a little over a couple of months after its predecessor. This new release by Canon can capture photos up to a whopping 8 megapixels-big enough to rival the prosumer digital SLRs that are out today.

One of the best features that you’ll get to see in this new point-and-shoot camera is the humongous 3-inch LCD screen. It has a wider zoom lens which also has the famous face detection system to recognize up to 35 faces at a time from various types of angles.

One of the recognizable omissions is an optical viewfinder but it more than compensates for that with its large LCD display which acts as a live view window. This new release is definitely much more stylish that the older Powershots so you’d best pick this one up when you have the time. You won’t regret the envious looks you’ll get when you whip this out.

This has been rumored quite a while. After the release of Nikon D80 more than a year ago, I’ve been hearing of a camera on the way that would soon replace the already pro-level Nikon D200. The rumors and speculations eventually grew stronger and before we know it, Nikon has revealed last August 2007 the all new D300.

Packed with features, almost everything from the Nikon D200 was upgraded. This comes to no surprise, however, since the Nikon D200 was first announced on November 2005 and over the past two years new technologies have already replaced the foundations that built digital SLR systems a few years back.

The upgrades in the D300, as was mentioned, were considerable. The new DSL now has 12.3 effective megapixel compared to the 10.2 million effective pixel CCD of its predecessor. It is also equipped with Nikon’s Expeed Image Processing System giving emphasis to the speed and processing power that most digital cameras deed today.

A new auto focus system is fitted tot he new D300 which has options for Single area AF mode and Dynamic AF modes using groups of either nine, 21 or all 51 focus points. And with Nikon’s 3D Focus Tracking feature has grown into a superb upgrade from the older D200. Plus the new LiveView shooting modes has bridged the gap between shooting experience of a DSLR and a compact point and shoot digital camera. The LiveView feature allows users to frame a shot using the camera’s LCD monitor.

Accuracy of the auto focus system, the auto exposure and the auto white balance is due to the Scene Recognition System that can also be found in the Professional level Nikon D3. Fast, accurate and intelligent calculations are features of the new D300. This new system claims to have a 1,005-segment sensor that is able to recognize a wider range of colors and light patterns.

Powering-up has been measured to a mere 0.13 seconds. Shooting at a 45 millisecond shutter release lag time which allows the D300 to shoot six frames per second. Equip the camera with the MB-D10 Multi-Power Battery pack and it can go as fast as eight frames per second.

And its seems Nikon has joined other DSLR camera manufacturers in providing self-cleaning sensors on their camera units. Although, if you ask me, such features are overrated. The sensor would eventually need some “old-swab style” sensor cleaning regardless of the vibrating filters. Nevertheless, to keep up with the Canon, Sony, Olympus and Pentax releases, the D300 has been equipped with four different resonance frequencies that vibrate the optical low pass filter in front of the image sensor. This vibration is designed to shake particles free and reduce the appearance of dust.

The camera also has a viewfinder that provides 100 percent coverage, a 920,000 dot VGA LCD screen, a 170-degree wide viewing angle, the usual rugged magnesium alloy body, and a shutter mechanism that has been rated to reach up to 150,000 cycles.

November 2007 is the scheduled consumer release of the D300. It has been given a price tag of around $1,799.95. The price is still an estimate since things can still change in the next two months but that is basically the price estimate that most experts are expecting. The current Nikon digital SLR line up that is still in production is now D3, D2XS, D300, D200, D80, D40x and D40.

One of the newest digital point-and-shoot cameras to come out of the woodwork recently is the Nikon Coolpix P50 digital camera. This is one of the ways that Nikon is celebrating its ten years of Coolpix cameras. This is one of the forerunners of the quality of Nikon to the world. They are confident that they have been able to achieve world-class optics as well as expertise in digital imaging.

With the Nikon Coolpix P50, Nikon has been able to make point-and-shoot photography a joy and fun. Those who try out the camera will eventually know and realize that Nikon is committed to the improvement of their cameras. This is a whopping 12.1 megapixels which will be what most people will be looking for when buying a digital camera.

Because of the EXPEED system, they were able to include the different types of features that are primarily famous in digital SLRs which is the vibration reduction feature in their lenses.

The black tint makes the camera much more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and will be a very faithful color to the traditional SLRs in Nikon.

The Canon Powershot SD850 IS is the predecessor of the current SD870 IS out in the market today. It was patterened after the earlier Powershots. The main difference between this version from the earlier Powershots is that this is already 8.3 megapixels compared to the previous version which only had 6.2 megapixels.

The SD850 also has the new Digic III image processor. This essentially cranks up the ISO setting up to 1,600 from the previous ISO 800. This is one camera that you’ll want to have because it will be able to let you capture just about every image possible even without a flash.

One of the things that you could improve on this Powershot is the 4x optical zoom lens. The SD850 IS’s lens gives you the equivalent of the widest focal length which is set to 35mm and ends at a telephoto range of 140mm. If you’re looking at the design of the SD850 IS, it is almost identical to the other previous Powershots. However, you still get a good, quality camera just because it’s a Canon.