Video Hardware

Creative Launch Skype 2.0-Certified Webcam
Tying in nicely with Skype’s new video calling feature (Skype 2.0, now in public beta), Creative have announced a new WebCam certified by Skype.
Regaling under the moniker of the Creative WebCam Instant Skype Edition, the package comes with a personal headset with microphone, software, and a stand-alone microphone if several people want to join in with the chat.
Bundled in the box is a free voucher for up to 30 minutes of SkypeOut, no doubt to tempt buyers to keep on buying time on Skype’s PC-to-landline or mobile phone calling service.
“Skype seeks to revolutionise the way everyone communicates using the Internet via chat, voice and now with video by making it simple. Creative shares that vision,” said James Bilefield, vice president of business development for Skype.
“Our partnership with Creative is important in helping to make the consumer experience with Skype Video calling simple and effective,” he continued.
Jean-Marc Dupuis, Joint-General Manager of Creative Labs Europe felt that the simplicity of Skype’s new service would generate huge interest in video calling, adding, “Making phone calls over the Internet is the new wave in communications.”
Webcam sales have been soaring in recent years, with European sales growing by over 139 percent in the past two years.
The new Skype-certified WebCam looks much the same as any other webcam (let’s face it, they’re never much to look at) and features an advanced CMOS sensor capable of capturing video at 352×288 at 30 frames per second.
There’s also a ‘snapshot button’ for taking low res stills at 640×480 via interpolation (in other words, it’s a smaller image artificially blown up, so don’t expect anything near digicam quality).
The little fella comes with a plastic stand which can be attached to flat panel and notebook displays and a “comprehensive software bundle” for image editing and management.
TECH STUFF:
Technical Specifications352x288 (CIF) CMOS sensorVideo Capture at up to 352x288USB 1.1 connection
System RequirementsIntel Pentium II or AMD Athlon processor running at 400MHz or higherWindows 2000, or XP128MB RAM100MB free disk space (excluding third party software installation)
Creative
Skype downloads
5 December, 2005
Holographic TV Created By Scientists
US scientists have created imaging technology that lets viewers enjoy what they claim to be the first truly three-dimensional holographic movies.
Sadly, the chief boffin of the “holographic television” project, Dr Harold ‘Skip’ Garner, has admitted that the technology will “not be coming soon to a theatre near you”.
Looking into his holographic crystal ball, Garner, professor of biochemistry and internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said that he could see the technology being used for entertainment applications like 3D multiplayer games, theme parks, holographic cinema and holographic TV.
Another of the developers, Dr Michael Huebschman, a postdoctoral researcher in Garner’s lab predicted that we’ll all be floating about on hover-boots watching holographic TV in our homes by 2020 (OK, I made the bit up about the boots).
Naturally, the inner gubbins of this device are unfathomably complex, but we can tell you that it’s based on complex optics principles, outrageously clever computer programs, and a small chip covered in more mirrors than Fatty Arbuckle had hot dinners. We’re talking thousands of the things.
Lurking in the heart of the system is a digital light processing micro-mirror chip.
Made by Texas Instruments, these clever puppies are currently used in television, video and movie projectors and incorporate a computer that processes an incoming digital signal several thousand times a second.
This changes the angle of each micro-mirror to reflect light from a regular light bulb and projects the resulting two-dimensional video onto a screen.
By replacing this light with a laser light and opening up his Big Box Of Clever Ideas, Garner set about creating different wavelengths that were out of phase with each other to create the holographic effect.
The signal created is a sequence of two-dimensional interference patterns, called interferograms, which can be cooked up from scratch or from data gathered from 3-D imaging applications, such as sonograms, CAT scans, magnetic resonance imaging, radar, sonar or computer-aided drafting.
“This technology is potentially powerful for medical applications,” commented Garner. “We could easily take data from existing 3-D imaging technologies and feed that into our computer algorithms to generate two-dimensional interferograms.”
If you look at interferograms on a PC screen, all you get is a series of random black dots creating an effect that looks a bit like a telly on the blink.
But feed them into the digital light processing micro-mirror chip, blast them at the tiny mirrors and reflect laser light off them and you’re presented with a Star Wars-esque 3-D moving image suspended in air, captured in a special material called agarose gel, or on a stack of liquid crystal plates like computer screens.
Naturally, there’s a ton of really useful applications for this technology that could really benefit mankind: holographic visualisations of human organs, dental and bone development, surgeon training and all that kind of stuff.
But all we want to know is when can we play a holographic shoot-em-up or watch the mighty Cardiff City in glorious surround-o-vision?
Garner and his colleagues whizzed up the technology with students at the Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. The objective was to develop a tentative business plan exploring the possible commercialisation of the technology, with a sensible focus on medical applications and not a desire to see Dot Cotton in 3D.
“An important next step is to take our proof of principle technology that we have now and move it into a commercial entity,” teased Garner before going off to admire a holographic heart.
Harold “Skip” Garner, Jr., Ph.D.
Garnering Innovation
16 June, 2005
Sony Unveils World’s Smallest and Lightest HD Consumer Camcorder
Pausing briefly for breath after announcing the new PlayStation today, the busy bees in the Sony hive have announced the world’s smallest and lightest high definition consumer camcorder with full HD resolution based on HDV 1080i.
The HDR-HC1 is the second consumer HD camcorder from Sony with the company hoping its lower price and size will help popularise the HD video recording format.
With some skilful spatial jiggery-pokery, Sony have managed to squeeze the camcorder’s size down to less than half that of their current model, the HDR-FX1, with the price falling substantially too.
The price and size economies were brought about by replacing the 3 CCD sensors with a single CMOS image sensor – a cheaper, simpler optical system that doesn’t require a bulky prism to split the image to each of the sensors.
The new camera also uses a smaller and more compact Carl Zeiss lens, with a diameter of 60mm compared to 92 mm on the previous model.
The lens offers a 10X optical and 120X digital zoom, zoom ring, zebra pattern and spot focus with manually adjustable white balance, shutter speed and focus.
Depending on the recording mode, the camcorder can provide around 90 minutes of continuous recording.
A 2.7in wide hybrid, touch-panel LCD screen allows access to menu options, with an option to switch between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios (in DV mode) to see exactly how the content might look on television.
There’s also a built-in microphone, pop-up flash, Super SteadyShot image stabilisation and Sony’s Super NightShot Plus Infrared System for filming in low/no light conditions.
A Memory Stick PRO Duo media slot is provided for transferring images captured on the camcorder’s 2.8-megapixel still camera.
Even with all these features, Sony’s engineers have managed to reduce the size of the camera’s electronics, cutting the 5 circuit boards down to 2 and reducing the total component count from 3,000 to 2,000.
This has been achieved with some nifty integration of components into chips, said Sony.
All of this has made the HDR-HC1 into a tiny little puppy, measuring just 71 x 94 x 188mm, and weighing a mere 680g without the battery – compare that with the previous bruiser of a camcorder that measured 151 x 181 x365 mm and weighed a muscle building 2kg.
Like its predecessor, the HDR-HC1 is based on the HDV format, which uses current-generation DV tapes to store high-definition video.
DV tapes are completely compatible and can hold the same amount of video under HDV as they can under standard definition, offering advantages to current DV camcorder users looking to preserve their investment in recording media.
HD video connectivity comes in the shape of Y/Pb/Pr component video signal, Japanese D3/D4 format signal and a 4-pin iLink interface.
This output can be streamed to high-definition compatible monitors and televisions with an HDV iLink interface.
The HDR-HC1 will be launched in Japan in early July and in North America, Europe and Asia around the same time. Although costing is not confirmed, it’s expected to roll out for 180,000 Yen in Japan. (~£915 ~US$1,680 ~€1,328).
Sony
18 May, 2005
ATI IMAGEON: Full Multimedia Phone Chips
ATI Technologies have introduced two new media processors, IMAGEON 2282 and IMAGEON 2182, offering a shovel load of ‘groundbreaking’ multimedia capabilities for mobile phones.
The company boasts that their mighty new chip can turn the ‘umble mobile phone into a high-resolution megapixel digital camera, a high-fidelity digital audio player and a digital camcorder with streaming video and video conferencing capabilities (tea-making features extra).
The IMAGEON processors are fully compliant with the 3GPP mobile media standards and capable of delivering high-levels of performance and quality independent of the host processor.
Ravi Gananathan, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Handheld Products Group, ATI Technologies Inc invites us to stick on our “visioneer” glasses:
“Just imagine the freedom of taking the functionality of your camcorder, MP3 player and digital still camera with you in a package that only weighs a few ounces.”
“The new IMAGEON processors from ATI combine advanced audio and video processing capabilities to turn mobile phones into mobile entertainment centers.”
The audio engine in the chip is a flexible and programmable beast, enabling CD-quality, 3D ring-tones along with high-quality stereo recording and playback in industry standard formats, including AMR, AAC, MP3, Real Audio, WMA and MIDI.
Meanwhile, the video engine enables a mobile digital video recorder/player and a 3 mega-pixel digital still camera, with the IMAGEON 2282 providing video streaming and video conferencing functionality with picture-in-picture support.
“The best camera is the one you have on hand to capture a memorable moment. That applies to all media devices,” enthused Gananathan. “Digital camcorders are the next killer application that carriers and consumers are looking for on mobile phones. The next generation IMAGEON powered mobile phones will allow users to be ready when they need to be – to snap a picture, record a movie or listen to music with no compromise on quality.”
ATI is promising ‘unparalleled visual quality and display features’ for the new chips with its ‘ATI’s PowerPlay’ power management technology claimed to offer the lowest power consumption at all levels of functionality.
The higher performance IMAGEON 2282 is targeted at the high mid-tier mobile phone segment while the IMAGEON 2182 targets the mainstream, low mid-tier segment.
Phones powered by the new IMAGEON processors are expected to ship later this year from leading handset manufacturers.
ATI IMAGEON
15 March, 2005
GZ-MC500: 3-CCD Hard-Drive Camcorder from JVC Everio
The diminutive JVC GZ-MC500 comes with three 1/4.5-inch CCD that records high-quality MPEG-2 video onto CompactFlash microdrives, with a 4 gig card, capable of storing up to an hour of “DVD-quality” video.
The GZ-MC500 is slightly larger than the previous two Everio models, and the increased size makes it easier for users to access advanced features such as a focus ring, manual shutter speed control, manual aperture control, real time histogram display, auto bracketing and manual white balance control.
There’s also the usual Program AE dial on the side of the unit, offering a range of exposure options including Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Twilight, Sports, Snow, Portrait, and Auto/Manual modes.
In keeping with its prosumer aspirations, the camera features a rotating grip and is kitted out with a matt black finish of a fairly rugged construction, although the small LCD screen (1.8 in) and weird omission of a microphone input may deter prospective customers.
The camcorder’s zoom is a bit weedy as well, measuring in at only 10x optical zoom (8x for stills).
The Everio offers four recording quality levels for the MPEG-2 video, with the highest quality setting providing 60 minutes of video recording time on a 4 gig card, with the lowest quality setting stretching it out to pixellated-tastic 300 minutes (JVC says that models with six or eight gigabyte hard disks will be available later in the year).
JVC includes the PowerProducer DVD authoring software with the GZ-MC500 so users can export their video to different medium/formats.
For capturing high quality still images, new camcorder sports an interpolation technique called “pixel-shift” which JVC claims is capable of doubling the amount of information horizontally and vertically via “prism optics and filterless 3-CCD pixel shift technology”.
Translated into a language approaching English, this means that the camera is able to produce thumping great 5-megapixel with a resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels still shots. This is second only to Samsung’s latest Duocam camcorder.
With consumers warming to hard disk based recorders, this compact combination of camcorder and camera, could prove enticing to enthusiasts keen to start fiddling about with all those exposure options and consumers looking for auto-everything recorder.
The JVC Everio GZ-MC500 will be available in March for $1,799.95 (£950, €1,400)
JVC
CCD
22 February, 2005
VisiFone, Ojo: Videophones Come Home
Every few years there are a number of announcements about the launch of new video phones. For decades the public have been told that this revolution is just around the corner.
For most of those years the means of transferring the speech and video information has been via a telephone line, initially a PSTN, then in the ’80’s, ISDN. Due to the limitation of the amount of bandwidth, using them was a pretty unsatisfactory experience with the video being ‘choppy’.
As broadband became more available, the bandwidth that video requires started to be come more widely installed in peoples homes and other places.
For quite a while this has been available to the technically savvy using software solutions available on desktops and laptops. By simply plugging in a cheap USB camera and installing some (often free) software, people have been able to chat and watch each other.
One instance sticks in my mind. When I was organising the Digital Lifestyles conference theme day at IBC 2003, one of the speakers, Stuart Cheshire, Ethernet Guru at Apple recounted his connecting to home. He had his hotel broadband connection, connected up his Apple iBook, slotted in an Apple iSight and, for the equivalent cost of a long distance call from Amsterdam to the US, he was able to chat to his family for as long as he wanted, with the added benefit that both he and his family where able to see each other, seeing the facial cue so important in a face-to-face conversation.
Now that broadband is an established fact for a large number of western households, there is a new wave of broadband, consumer-friendly devices that don’t require PC’s to function – and that’s going to make them usable by a range of generations.
Viseon used CES to launch it VisiFone, labelling it the Digital Home Telephone. They claim by keeping the communications digital from end-to-end, the free standing unit provides CD-quality audio and TV-quality video.
They claim one of the secrets to their success is their use of the latest chips from Texas Instruments (TI) specifically; TI’s newest IP phone system-on-a-chip, the TNETV1050, which provides enhanced digital voice quality and conferencing; and the DSP-based TMS320DM64x digital media processor, offering high quality, multi-channel video.
Viseon’s business approach is to sell the unit via broadband service providers. The first they have announced is a deal with well known VoIP provider, Vonage, who run services in the US, Mexico and of last week, the UK.
Another offering at CES was Ojo from Motorola, which they label the Personal Video Phone. It works on a similar principle of a screen and embedded camera on a stand. The Ojo’s large colour screen is 5.6-inch, 9 x 16 format, which they say frames the face better.
It uses an advanced MPEG-4 coding standard (H.264), which enables transmission of 30 frames-per-second video with synchronized audio at data rates as low as 110 Kbps.
Ojo differs from VisiFone in that it can also handle phone calls over ‘normal’ phone lines using its cordless handset.
Ojo should be available in the US from Spring 2005 at $799, plus an as-yet-undisclosed monthly service charge.
How long it will be before we have Video phones on the street, a la Blade Runner is unclear, but finally things appear to moving in the world on consumer-friendly videophone.
Viseon VisiFone
Motorola Ojo
10 January, 2005
DVR Wireless Kit for Police from Avalon RF
Designed for law enforcement, perimeter security and long-range video links, AValon RF’s new wireless range includes receivers, transmitters, remote display units (RDUs) and a variety of specialised antennas. The company’s technology provides broadcast quality, interference-free video links over the frequency spectrum of 56MHz to 2.5GHz, allowing security personnel to use a rugged PDA and Tablet PC to wirelessly view video from remote cameras while driving in a patrol vehicle.
For instance, the AValon ICV04 is a four-channel video recorder that lets you record streaming audio and video on an internal hard disk drive at 30fps. It is designed to fit under a vehicle seat and receive commands through a remote control, a computer, or a remote smart display. Recording is triggered manually or automatically by an external signal, such as a siren, flashing light activation, or code 1-2-3 in a police patrol vehicle. The recorded streaming video can be read via a USB port or archived on a standard CD-RW media.
Other features of the neat device include four video/audio inputs for a wireless LC618M lapel camera (or MX416 microphone), windshield camera, back seat camera and a trunk camera, VITC time/date stamping on all recorded video, support for up to 1 hour of recording on a 400MB Dataplay CD, and a USB 2.0 interface-to-vehicle computer/gateway. It utilises standard 12-volt powering and comes in ruggedised enclosure.
AValon RF
10 November, 2004
Europeans don’t Get Portable Video Players Yet
A new survey has found that Europeans are not enamoured by the all singing, all dancing devices that play songs and films, play video games and have a video-playback feature. Only 5% are interested in buying a device that plays both music and video, while a mere 7% would like their device to play games and video. But almost a third are interested in listening to music on a portable player such as an iPod.
5,000 consumers from Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain and Italy were recently surveyed by Jupiter Research and the results were published yesterday.
Things might change, of course, if the multi-purpose gadgets could stay small, neat and inexpensive, and indeed Apple has managed to add photo display capabilities to the iPod without increasing its size.
It makes sense that 27% of European consumers would prefer to have music-only while on the move, since unlike movies, you really can listen and enjoy it whilst running or walking. As for the 13% who want to watch video while out and about, maybe they are the ones who have to wait the longest for buses and trains.
So, gadget makers sit up and take notice. Consumers want music, just music – 39% of French and 31% of British consumers were most interested in music players – and they want the sound quality to be top notch. That’s why lots of them have dedicated, digital music players. This is probably not really what Bill Gates wants to hear, with his Portable Media Center waiting in the wings.
Last months Jupiter Research report, ‘European Digital Music: Identifying Opportunity’, predicts that digital music revenue will reach €836 million(~$1,062m), or 8% of the total market, by 2009. While the growth of digital music players like Apple’s iPOD or the Creative Nomad Jukebox feature a lot in the news, CD’s still rule. So, it is sobering to remember that these statistics and reports are only referring to a tiny proportion of the music-listening public.
2 November, 2004
Akimbo IP-VOD to Sell Through Amazon
We’ve been keeping our eye on Akimbo, an IP-delivered VOD (Video-On-Demand) service and have learnt that they are launching and have signed on Amazon.com as its official retailer. Akimbo has just launched its video-on-demand service and signed on Amazon.com as its official retailer. Akimbo is to video what Apple’s iTunes is to the iPod. The Akimbo Player, utilising an easy “Queue and View” format is a set-top box that delivers hundreds of mainly niche program videos to television through a broadband-Internet connection allowing consumers to choose content and view it on-demand – or maybe even later.
Amazon.com will be the exclusive retailer for the 2004 holiday season, and the Akimbo Player which can hold about 200 hours of video, is now available in the Amazon.com Electronics store for US$229.99 (~£125, €180) [Buy]. Consumers can sign up for the Akimbo Service by visiting their site at a cost of US$9.99 (~ £5, €8.10) a month. Sadly, for content licensing reasons we assume, it’s only available in the US currently.
The service offers consumers 50 categories of content, including mainstream, classic and independent films, foreign language, news, health and fitness, sports, children’s programs, and education. At no additional charge you can download old series such as “The Jewel In the Crown” from Granada International, consult comprehensive independent film catalogues from Undergroundfilm, GreenCine, Amaze Films, and IFILM. Or you can receive news specials and features from CNN, more conventional classic movies from Turner Classic Movies and cartoon episodes from the Cartoon Network. Premium services are also available for access to foreign language programming.
The Akimbo Player utilizes widely adopted technology for playback including Windows Media 9 technologies for audio and video compression, and digital rights management. The Akimbo Service automatically delivers an onscreen program guide and subscribers choose which programming they would like to download to the Akimbo Player. Then, each time Akimbo Service subscribers turn on their TVs, they have new videos, previews and editorial information waiting for them.
Akimbo has competition from other VOD suppliers waiting in the wings, including Disney’s Moviebeam, TiVo and Netflix, all who have plans for 2005.
Akimbo
Buy Akimbo Player from Amazon
26 October, 2004
Diagnosis of Patients in Transit via Video Link Trailed in Japan.
Imagine the advantages of being able to send high-definition video of a patient from an ambulance to a hospital via cell phone. It will happen nation-wide in Japan from next April.
A collaborative project by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the Tsukuba Medical Centre Hospital, and the Tsukuba Fire Headquarters has developed such a system that can do just this. Simply at the flick of a switch, paramedics will activate the system to enable a hospital doctor to examine a patient via remote control video camera using the new technology that has made it possible to compress high-definition image data sufficiently to allow its transmission via cell phone.
According to national statistics in Japan, it takes an average of 21 minutes to transport an emergency patient to hospital. These high-definition images though, will make it possible for doctors at the receiving hospital to give critical, timesaving and appropriate advice to paramedics, with obvious positive implications for the survival prospects of the patient.
To implement the system, ambulances will need to be modified to carry a video camera, laptop computer and special antenna, and AIST say the system will be tested in the city by the end of the year and will go on sale nation-wide in April.
This is the first time we have heard of video from a moving vehicle being used for medical diagnosis and treatment. Fixed-location use of video is now becoming common place, in deed a story in News.com this summer highlighted the importance of being able to avail of expert instructions remotely, when cardiac surgery on a patient in Guam was led by physician, Dr. Benjamin Berg in front of a computer screen 3,500 miles away at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu. He dictated the procedure to a less experienced colleague, monitoring every move with a high-resolution video camera.
AIST already has a track record in using technology to advance medical practice, having developed a therapeutic robot seal called PARO in collaboration with Microjenics. In February 2002, the Guinness Book of Records acknowledged the PARO robot as the most therapeutic robot in the world. AIST has licensed all PARO’s intellectual property rights to its affiliated venture company Intelligent System (ISC), who plan to introduce the robot to nursing homes for the elderly.
News.com – Digital Agenda Broadband (24 page PDF)
JCN – AIST Develops Therapeutic Robot Seal
25 October, 2004