Senseye will let you control your mobile phone with your eyes

Forget Siri, Copenhagen developpers are planning to launch on Android phones in 2012, a technology called Senseye that controls your phone with your eyes. TheNextWeb reports.

The team has developed technology that tracks the movement of your eyes using the front-facing camera on mobile phones. This then allows you to control all sorts of aspects of the phone. You will be able to send messages, play games and more without having to touch the handset at all.

A developer interface will allow third-party apps to work with Senseye, and the plan is to earn revenue through licensing the technology to manufacturers so that it can be baked into the operating systems on handsets straight out of the box.

Read more.

Modified iPhone Can Detect Blood Disorders

A cheap lens that enables a cell phone's camera to discern the shapes of cells in a blood sample could make it easier to diagnose conditions such as sickle-cell anemia in places without medical infrastructure. MIT Technology Review reports.

The system was developed at the University of California, Davis, and is designed to allow field workers to photograph blood samples from patients, and then send the micrographs to doctors via the cellular network for interpretation.

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OWLE Bubo transforms iPhone 4 into fully fledged video camera

Spotted on Pocket-lint, the OWLE Bubo which transforms your iPhone 4 into a miniature HD camera, complete with macro and wide-angle lens.

The facial recognition revolution

Favorite Jan Chipchase on the facial recognition revolution for CNN.

... The mainstreaming of facial recognition technology, which through smartphones will literally be in the palm of your hand. The ability to identify someone at a moment's notice by snapping a photo of him or her, to trigger an immediate influx of data about the person behind the face, will forever change the world.

Who wouldn't want to know more about the people in the world around them? Imagine being able to pull up a résumé, Facebook profile, tax records and vital statistics just by taking a photograph. Consider how this will change social interaction and dynamics in public spaces - on the streets, at a conference, on campus, at an anti-government protest, in the personal care aisle of your local supermarket and in nightclubs.

... The technology is already here, and it’s not just in the form of government agencies on the lookout for terrorists or criminals. There exist fun mobile-phone apps like FaceDouble that analyze faces and compare them to those of celebrities, a contemporary parlor trick fueled by algorithms and some retailers are building up profiles of consumer's shopping behaviors via one-way cameras in shop displays.

In addition, with each photo and detail about your life you're posting online, you're adding to a rich, constantly updated dataset: Who in your social network has "checked in" to the same restaurants via foursquare; friends tagging you in a photo as you roll up to a bar; your geo-tagged Instagram photos.

These are the building blocks that the facial-recognition software can cross-reference, building a profile of you based not only what you write or has been written about you, but about what you look like and have looked like. Even if you don’t state your ethnic background anywhere on LinkedIn or whether you are married with children, a scan of your photos and other people's photos featuring you will make it far easier to deduce.

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Get Ready For A Photo App Explosion With iOS 5

At this point, it’s already clear that the iPhone has become the camera many people use on a daily basis. The iPhone 4 is now by far the most popular camera on Flickr. But some upcoming changes in iOS 5 point to an even brighter future for the iPhone as a camera. We’re likely to see an explosion of photo apps as a result. Image/photo processing will become much simpler to implement and execute.

[via TechCrunch]

Korea gets 1st 3-D phone

Adding to 3-D hype in the technology industry, Korea will get its first 3-D phone in the very near future, writes Korea Joongang Daily.

LG Electronics showcased its latest Optimus 3-D smartphone to the Korean media yesterday, saying it will start receiving preorders for the device today.

The Optimus 3-D runs on Google’s Android operating system and gives the illusion of three-dimensional images without wearing 3-D glasses. It was first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this year, as the world’s first full 3-D smartphone. It has been released in some European countries.

One of the most notable features is that it can record, play and share 3-D videos and images. It is also expected to be popular with 3-D game players.

Read full article.

A Start-Up's Camera Lets You Take Shots First and Focus Later

Lytro's technology allows a picture's focus to be adjusted after it is taken. The New York Times reports.

The Lytro camera captures far more light data, from many angles, than is possible with a conventional camera. It accomplishes that with a special sensor called a microlens array, which puts the equivalent of many lenses into a small space. That is the heart of the breakthrough, said Pat Hanrahan, a Stanford professor, who was Mr. Ng's thesis adviser but is not involved in Lytro.

Read full article.

iOS5 cameraphone related feature: Volume-up button to snap your photo

One of the new features coming in iOS5, is pressing the volume-up button to snap your photo. But it shouldn't deter anyone from getting RedPop which is way cooler.

[via Apple Features]

Device lets you capture 360-degree videos from iPhone

A New York start-up wants you to be able to capture and share 360-degree videos from your iPhone. USA Today reports.

Kogeto's is now taking pre-orders (at kickstarter.com) for Dot, a $99 optical snap-on lens attachment that turns the iPhone 4 camera into panoramic video capture device. Dot snaps on top of the iPhone 4 lens; the entire thing looks a little bit like a crippled version of the letter "F."

Read more.

Coming soon: Wave your hand to control your phone

Ttouchless gesture interface is coming to mobile phones from top-tier handset makers this year, promised Ofer Sadka, chief technology officer of a start-up called Extreme Reality based in Herzeliya, Israel, that's commercializing the technology. CNet reports from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

... Variations of gesticulation-sensitive interface are being used to flip through a photo gallery. One used close-range hand gestures, including rotating a fist to zoom in and out.

The other was from several feet away--it's got an 8-meter range--and used more sweeping arm motions, an experience more akin to Microsoft's Kinect game controller.

The touchless interface could be useful for controlling devices in a car, where a driver might for example not want to have to focus specifically on hitting the right button.

Read full article.

Related technologies:

-- Samsung Patents Visual Gesture Control

-- Cell Phone Uses Gesture Control

-- Synaptics Mobile Phone Concept includes gesture interface

-- Links to articles blogged by textually related to Air Texting

Heat Vision for Your Cell Phone Camera

Do you ever look into your backyard at night wondering if there are hostiles hiding in the bushes readying for an ambush? Well, if Pentagon’s research branch, Darpa, succeeds on implementing heat vision on cellphones, as is their plan, then you may soon have available to you a militarized iPhone to safeguard your house. Slashgear reports.

Darpa has solicited a project where they want thermal imaging capabilities small enough to fit into a rifle sight, on the dashboard of a vehicle, or in a cell phone. And they’re not satisfied with it only being able to determine a person’s approach, but also to be clear enough so that the viewer can “determine that personnel target(s) are present and that the target(s) are potentially an immediate threat.

Read full article.

Cell Phones with 16-megapixel cameras

Renesas, the Japanese producer of camera chips which merged with NEC, has announced that it would soon make a sensor that would allow the production of 16-megapixel cameras.

The new chipset will enable continuous shooting that will be five times faster than camera phones currently available on the market.

[via HTlounge]

16 megapixel camera phones coming

Renesas Technology, which makes the modules for phone cameras, has announced the availability of kit that could lead to smartphones with 16 megapixel cameras. Mobile Entertainment reports.

Samples have already been shipped that can reproduce a 1920 × 1080 image resolution and high-speed continuous shooting at 15 frames per second at 13 megapixels.

It aims to start commercial production from March 2011.

With 3D and hi-def phones coming, this could be quite a year for mobile video/imaging. But not such a good one for battery life.

Over 3.5 million Nokia N8 sold since launch 3 months ago

Noki'as 12 megapixel camera, the first model running on Symbian 3 operating system, is one of Nokia N8 strongest selling points and it has received good critics among reviewers, reports Esatp.

Several reputable camera magazines and web sites rated the N8 as an excellent camera phone much because of the Carl Zeiss optics and not because of the user interface.

The independent Finnish research firm Inderes said yesterday that 3.5 to 4 million Nokia N8 devices were estimated to have shipped since launch.

Read full article.

Camera-looking camera phone

Spotted on technabob, a camera phone that really looks like a camera. By LG for DoCoMo.

Apple Goes After The Camera Market Too

As the iPhone’s camera quality has improved, a new series of patents that have emerged from the company shows that the Apple could completely replace the traditional camera for many reports Bits Blog.

Among the new features discussed in the patent, the company is exploring new technologies that could adjust the camera flash based on the scene of the photo and the angle the camera is to an object.

Another example of this flash would let the camera operator highlight a dimly lit area and focus the flash exclusively there. That means no more photos of people who look like cardboard cutouts when you use your camera flash.

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Four Ways Camera Phones Are Better Than Cameras

It's getting harder to make the case that a stand-alone camera is a must-have device for casual snapshooters. In fact, there are four ways in which a puny-lensed, small-sensored camera phone offers a better overall photography experience than a dedicated snapshot camera.

Read on in PC World.

Concept: Nadia Camera Tells You How Cool Your Pictures Are

Ever wanted someone to give you a second opinion on that amazing shot that you just took? If you don't have an experienced photographer friend to follow you around the whole day, the Nadia camera concept might be of interest to you, as the design will take the image that you've captured and compare it against the ACQUINE quality inference engine, and will rate your picture on a percentage scale.

Read more and watch video demo in Ubergizmo.

Stanford 'Frankencamera' platform

Stanford's open-source digital photography software platform, "Frankencamera," which allows users to create novel camera capabilities, is available as a free download for Nokia N900 "mobile computers" starting today, reports PhysOrg.

Anyone will be able to create new features for the camera by writing aps that control all the camera's functions -- focus, exposure, shutter speed, flash, etc. Cameras could be taught new tricks with downloadable apps, analogous to iPhone apps.

Read full article

Sizing up the iPhone 4 for shutterbugs

arstechnica takes you through the many improvements to the iPhone 4G's camera hardware.

Apple has ticked off nearly every box on our wishlist: more megapixels, better low-light sensitivity, an LED flash, a wider angle of view, 720p HD video recording, a front-facing camera, and more. An iPhone 4 isn't going to replace a DSLR or a high-end point-and-shoot, but for all but the most devoted pixel-peepers, the hardware is capable of some very nice images.

Read full article.

Will The iPhone 4 Change Filmmaking?

The new iPhone 4 provides users with the opportunity to create an entire film on a mobile phone. Will this change the way films are made or simply enhance the way we watch them? ScreenRant reports.

The new iPhone offers thousands of dollars worth of equipment in a handheld device, all for the $199 or $299 price tag of the phone, with only and additional $4.99 for the iMovie application. At 720p and 30fps, the camera provides superior quality to any of its predecessors. 10 hours of battery life during video use proves you can last longer with the iPhone than a thousand dollar camera.

Read on.

Sharp Develops 3D Camera for Cell Phones

Sharp announced that it has created a new camera module that would allow mobile phones to capture 3D images and video.

[via phone scoop]

iPhone 4G to use Korean Made 5-megapixel camera sensors

According to fareastgizmo, Korean-Made Camera LG Innotek will supply 5-megapixel cameras for Apple's next-generation smartphone, the iPhone 4G.

Nokia launches first open source Symbian phone

The first handset to use the Symbian operating system since it became open source has been announced by Nokia.

The N8 phone has a 12 megapixel camera and allows people to record and edit High Definition video clips, as well as watch web TV services.

Full article in the BBC.

Cell Phones to get Night Vision

Once the domain of military and police, a cheap thin-film approach to night vision could give cell phones, eyeglasses, and car windshields the ability to see in the dark.

[via PopSci]

iPhone OS 4 code includes camera flash functions

It appears that in addition to new settings like digital zoom and probably white balance, devs have also located functions that hint at the presence of camera flash in the next iPhone (presumably to be announced this summer).

[via phoneArena]

Nanotechnology could improve the quality of mobile-phone cameras

Cameraphones, a gimmick and a luxury a few years ago, have become ubiquitous. The ITU estimates that 4.6 billion mobile phones are in use at the moment. Of those, more than a billion are equipped with cameras, according to Tom Hausken, an analyst at Strategies Unlimited. Dr Hausken estimates that some 800m camera-phones will be sold this year. The Economist reports.

Yet most of the photos taken with these phones will be grainy and of low resolution, the reason is that both camera and lens have to be small, to fit with all the other gubbins on a phone.

A typical camera-phone is equipped with a one- or two-megapixel silicon-based camera chip that is about 8mm across. Phone cameras with up to five megapixels are becoming available, but InVisage, a small firm based in Menlo Park, California, hopes to leap from that to a photographically respectable 12 megapixels, without an increase in size or cost, by adding tiny crystals called quantum dots to the process.

Read full article

Sharp unveils 3D mobile phones... that don't need special glasses

A new generation of 3D mobile phones that don't require special glasses, could go on sale by the end of this year reports The Daily Mail.

Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp unveiled a new three-inch liquid crystal display screen that played 3D animations over the weekend.

Read full article.

Patent Filed for Motorola 3D image flip phone

Ubergizmo has dug up a patent filed my Motorola for a 3D image flip phone.

Company Sees Leap for Cellphone Cameras

Mobile photographers could soon have much better cameras on their cellphones, thanks to technology known as quantum dots. The New York Times reports.

... According to Jess Lee, chief executive of InVisage Technologies, with such technology, the current three-megapixel camera found in the Apple iPhone could be turned into a 12-megapixel camera that works better in varying light conditions.

Read full article.

Cameraphones: Are the Megapixel Wars Over at Last?

Exactly what's causing the apparent ceasefire in the cameraphone megapixel wars? Top 10 Mobile Phones' Joe Minihane investigates. Check it out.

Adding a ‘SixthSense’ to Your Cellphone

A camera-based device developed by an M.I.T. researcher Pranav Mistry turns walls into computer interfaces and allows users to issue commands through gestures. The technology is aimed at cellphone users.

[via Bits]

Frankencamera

It's big. It's ugly. And it's made from recycled parts, at least for now. It's called the "Frankencamera" — and it might someday change the way you take pictures.

Computer scientists at Stanford University say the new camera prototype works something like an iPhone: It can be altered in nearly infinite ways, depending on the applications downloaded to it.

[Read full article in NPR]

Samsung Launched 12MP Cameraphone in India

Samsung India today launched the world’s first GSM Mobile handset with a 12 MP camera and full touch screen functionality – Pixon12 (M8910) in the Indian mobile phone market.

[via Telecom Talk]

New camera for narcissists has front-facing LCD

Samsung's new digital camera called the TL225 helps you take pictures of yourself.

[via The RawFeed]

Asian Fan Phones

The Lightningbug concept phone design by Yong-Hwan Kwon opens at the top and fans out a screen which can be used to watch videos, surf the internet and see media on a larger scale.

The design is fun because it provides a screen bigger than usual mobile phones, but the actual phone doesn’t increase in size. Take a look at the smart phone design above.

[via Trendhunter]

Nokia launching 12-megapixel camera phone

Nokia is stepping up its game with the launch of a 12-megapixel camera phone later this year, according to PhoneReport via ZDNet. This follows up 12 MP model announcements from Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson. The best Nokia has to offer right now is the Nokia N86, which only an 8 megapixel camera.

National Geographic Duet Travel Phone

National Geographic and Cellular Abroad have announced a new travel phone called the Duet that is designed for the needs of the international traveler. The handset has slots for two SIM cards and offers Bluetooth, a camera, FM radio, TV, and a 1GB memory card. I4U reports.

The phone also comes loaded with content from National Geographic including ringtones, wallpapers, and travel videos. The handset ships with the pay-as-you-go National Geographic SIM card for affordable calling from 185 different countries and free incoming calls in over 80 countries.

Apple's new iPhone set to heat up phone war

Photos purporting to show the new iPhone were leaked on the internet over the weekend. The handset is expected to have a 3.2-megapixel camera, compared with the current 2-megapixel camera, a built-in compass and rubber-tread backing. Other photos show the device has a front-facing video camera to allow customers to engage in two-way video conversations.

[via The Telegraph]

Samsung's 12-megapixel camera phone

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., today reinforced its leadership in the high megapixel cameraphone market by unveiling Samsung Pixon12 (M8910), the world’s first 12-megapixel camera phone with full-touch screen.

YTN News Chanel

12-Megapixel LG Phone In The Works

According to übergizmo, LG will be releasing a new 12-megapixel cell phone later this year.

Samsung testing shutters for mobile cameras

Samsung Electronics is in the process of developing a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) shutter for camera phones, according to electronista .

A shutter could overcome the problems associated with quickly transferring the image data, which can lead to long frames or distortion when capturing moving objects.

New Samsung phone makes video calls even in the dark

Samsung is planning to launch a video call enabled mobile phone- SCH-W760, using infrared rays according to Telecoms Korea via Fareastgizmo.

The slider type Samsung SCH-W760 users can make video calls even in the dark although the screen will show only black and white.

Mobile App Uses Phone Camera as Virtual Eyes

iVisit, a audio and video conferencing company, is showing off an interesting technology using mobile phones that act as virtual eyes to help visually challenged users. Wired reports.

The technology called SeeScan allows users to point their cellphones at an object and have it identified in real-time. For instance users can point a phone at a at a can of Coke or a pack of frosted flakes or a bottle of shampoo and have the name of it read loud to them near-instantaneously.

The concept known as augmented reality, or a field that blends real world and computer generated data, is something companies are increasingly focusing on.

SeeScan though works only with packaged goods including currency but what's interesting to see is how iVisit has been able to make real-time object recognition work with a mobile processor.

Read full article.

New Exilim Casio steams up YouTube

Casio took an unusual approach to confirming the existence of a rumored Exilim camera phone: a steamy YouTube video Thursday.

The video video has been taken down, but word is it showed a young woman in the shower with the phone in hand, to show that it's water-resistant.

[via News.com]