The Digital Ecosystem: Exciting Imaging Innovations at CES?

The Digital Ecosystem: Exciting Imaging Innovations at CES?

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Nope.

None of the major photography companies made significant announcements at the 2015 CES/PMA, held in Vegas January 6–9. (Perhaps they are awaiting the CP+ event next month in Japan.)

However, there was evidence of advances in important new areas of imaging: wearables, quadcopters, 4K capture, 3D capture and solid 3D output.

4K Video for Photography
There were plenty of big screens at CES, of course, pushing 4K and even 8K display of home entertainment. Personally, I don’t think there is a great demand for more resolution: when I watch TV shows or movies on my HD projector I never think, “Gosh, this would be better with more pixels.”

Where 4K video is better, however, is on the capture side. Having four times the resolution of HD video means you can “pan and scan” when editing to crop and recompose a shot, and still output Full HD.

Perhaps more groundbreaking is the potential for still pictures: each frame of 4K video is also an 8 megapixel image, and you’re getting 30 of ’em every second. Just before leaving for Las Vegas, I recorded a podcast interview with Panasonic’s marketing manager, Darin Pepple, about the company’s work in the area. He emphasized its importance for still photographers: No longer will they have to rely on skill and luck to ensure they capture the right split second. Panasonic has been leading the way in 4K, and at our first Visionary Awards, they won the Capture category for that work.

Quadcopters Que Up

Last summer we talked here about drones, remote-controlled mini copters carrying cameras. They were everywhere at CES. There was a whole pavilion of them, and that wasn’t enough, as booths buzzed with flying cams in multiple halls.

Remember when remote-controlled planes and copters only had VGA-res cameras? It wasn’t that long ago. And then HD video capture was a big deal. Now DJI’s latest drone has a 12MP sensor for 4K video and RAW stills (dji.com). “Everything is better in 4K,” DJI says, which “gives you the power to make every shot a masterpiece.”

The Inspire 1 remote-controlled quadcopter has a 3-axis gimbal to stabilize the camera. Its lens is constructed of 9 elements in 9 groups, including an aspherical element that DJI says produces “extreme clarity.” The cam-copter is $2,899.

If even the compact drones from DJI are too big for you, how about one you can wear? Really. The Nixie got a lot of coverage last summer when it debuted on Kickstarter. Basically a wearable quadcopter drone that rests on your wrist before launching to take a selfie, it seemed too futuristic to be practical. But it took a big step closer to commercial feasibility when the Nixie won the $500,000 grand prize in Intel’s “Make It Wearable” competition. And at CES, the two companies went a step further with a live demo during Intel’s keynote. Nixie took off, snapped a shot of the CEO, which appeared on the stage’s big screen, and returned to the hand of its developer—without cutting it off!

Wearable: Huge Potential in Tiny Cams
Tiny wearable cameras aren’t exactly new, but a full-featured one priced under $80 is. iON Camera entered the imaging industry with an action cam targeted at extreme athletes. Late last year it offered a home security system. Now it’s broadened its reach with SnapCam, a tiny wearable that could make the nascent market take off. How so? Because while the Wi-Fi version is $150, the otherwise-identical Wi-Fi-free version is $79—a price at which it is a mere impulse buy for teens and 20-somethings. And if they like it, they may upgrade to the Wi-Fi model and pass on the first purchase to someone who also might then upgrade, and . . .

The SnapCam (usa.ioncamera.com/snapcam) is 1.5 inches square and weighs less than an ounce; it attaches directly to your clothes with a clip or magnet. With an 8MP sensor, it captures 2.5 hours of 720p video or 5,000 photos on one charge. It uploads via Wi-Fi to a phone.

The market for wearable cameras reportedly may grow from a current 8 million units annually to 20–25 million within a few years.

There’s also a lot of interest in another form of wearable imaging and computing, the smartwatch. Burg makes several smartwatch models, and the Burg 12 (burgsmartwatch.com) has full phone functionality with the watch’s speakerphone, using an included SIM card or paired with an iPhone or Android phone. Unlike the forthcoming Apple Watch, it has a camera. We couldn’t find any indication of what resolution it captured, so it’s probably in the low megapixels. PC magazine just reviewed the $199 watch, calling it “a curious combination of smartwatch and smartphone, and it doesn’t succeed at being either.”

Intel Demos 3D Camera
Intel’s CES keynote didn’t only spotlight the Nixie copter, it also featured the company’s RealSense (intel.com/realsense), billed as “the world’s first and smallest integrated 3D camera” that delivers real-time depth sensing. The RealSense module weighs 8 grams and is less than 4mm thick. Intel says it “senses the surrounding world to scan, interact, play games, augment reality and enhance photo and real-time video in three dimensions.”

With RealSense, Intel’s Snapshot system “takes photography to another dimension with multi-camera, depth-enabled tablets,” the company says. “Capturing a high-definition depth map optimized for photography along with your full-resolution image, you can change focus and take measurements with a touch of a finger, add dynamic effects and motion, and discover things in your photos you never thought were there.”

Hey, Nixie wasn’t the only chopper Intel showcased: another larger model had six RealSense cameras onboard with which it navigates around obstacles autonomously.

And it’s not just copters. Intel demonstrated a research project for vision-impaired people: wearable RealSense cameras that “sense the vicinity and trigger vibrations as a feedback mechanism, helping people to navigate their environment,” Intel says.

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