6Sight

Kodak sues Apple, RIM

Kodak alleges patent infringement by Apple and Research In Motion, saying camera phones infringe Kodak digital imaging technology.

Kodak filed its complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), claiming Apple iPhones and RIM camera-enabled BlackBerry devices infringe a Kodak patent that covers technology related to a method for previewing images.

Separately, Kodak filed suit against Apple that alleges infringement of two patents generally covering image preview and the processing of images of different resolutions.

Kodak adds it has “had discussions for years with both companies in an attempt to resolve this issue amicably, and we have not been able to reach a satisfactory agreement.”

The company says it has royalty-bearing licenses on its digital imaging technology with approximately 30 companies, including phone makers LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

This month, Samsung and Kodak settled their suits with a patent sharing agreement, and a royalty payment to Kodak. Kodak reports, during this disagreement, an ITC administrative law judge issued a ruling declaring the Kodak patent covering color image preview (No. 6,292,218) was valid and enforceable, and the Samsung camera-enabled mobile devices infringed upon that Kodak patent.

Apple is also currently involved in patent suits with Nokia, and last week filed to block import of Nokia phones into the United States.

January 18, 2010

Live video calls on an iPhone

Fring, a free iPhone application, provides video chat on the iPhone 3GS.

As the one iPhone camera points away from the display, Fring cannot function as a video-calling device on which callers can show themselves while seeing the other party: face-to-face video conferencing requires front-facing cameras.

What Fring can do is deliver the “here is what I am seeing” experience, showing the person you are talking with what is in front of you during the call.

Like other VoIP iPhone apps, Fring functions only over Wi-Fi, as AT&T restricts such calls over its 3G network.

Ramat Gan, Israel-based Fring also provides voice-over IP software for Nokia Symbian and Windows phones.

December 7, 2009

LG phone captures – and projects – 5MP photos

The latest LG Electronics smart phone, the eXpo, has a 5-megapixel camera with flash, and its optional pico projector snaps onto the back of the device to “share presentations, slide shows, and videos straight from their mobile phones.”

The projector weighs 1.8 ounces and can project images 8 feet away. The phone comes standard with a 3.2-inch touch screen and a slider full-size QWERTY keypad.

LG says the eXpo is the first phone with a 1 GHz processor available in the United States. It runs Windows Mobile 6.5. 

The phone is $300 from AT&T; the LG Mobile Projector is $180.

December 7, 2009

Kodak Tweets Photos

Kodak aims to “leverage the viral nature of the real-time web and social eco-systems,” with a collaborative agreement with TweetPhoto, a new service Kodak says “has quickly become a leader in real-time photography." 

The two companies will focus on real-time photo sharing, which “is currently used across social networking sites to start a conversation or give context to a tweet,” TweetPhoto says. “Photo sharing on the real-time web is only going to continue to grow. We are striving to create innovative photocentric products and services to help our partners and customers succeed in the social media realm.”

November 23, 2009

IPHONE IMAGING

• Flickr regularly graphs which cameras captured the photos uploaded to its sharing service – and its latest report shows the iPhone, with its 2-megapixel sensor, is now the most popular capture device, as it surpasses the Canon Rebel XTi SLR. It’s no surprise, then, a wide variety of imaging applications continue to flood the Apple iTunes App Store for use on the popular smart phone.

• Tiffen adds to its Dfx Digital Filter Creative Effects software for the iPhone and iPod Touch: the $3 Photo Fx 2.0 has 61 filters with 615 presets. The edits are nondestructive, made on a copy without overwriting the original image.

• Lucidiom Inc. Pocket Pics synchronizes online photos with an iPhone. It’s free to account holders with Photo Finale, the Lucidiom white-label, photo sharing, and ordering site. Lucidiom now claims more than 55,000 APM photo kiosks worldwide.

• Shoot It! LLC is offering a postcard messaging application for the iPhone. With Postcard Messaging, users can take a picture, create a personal message, and have it mailed as a real postcard to anyone in the world. Mailed card costs range from 99 cents to $1.50.

• Athentech Imaging Inc. has ported its Perfectly Clear image correction to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The $3 application can optimize images for exposure, color accuracy, sharpness, and depth with a single touch, the company says. It also provides tools to fine tune the look of photos by adjusting sliders and presets.

Athentech says its image correction algorithms separately optimize every pixel in an image for exposure, color accuracy, color vibrancy, tint, sharpness, depth, and noise – and “essentially operates like the human eye, optimizing and correcting the light in every pixel to perfectly preserve the photographer’s memory. An accurately reproduced image will retrigger memories far better than an inaccurate correction.”

   Perfectly Clear is currently used in more than 50,000 retail photo kiosks, several thousand minilabs, and multiple online photo sites and labs, the company says, in addition to the stand-alone software package. 

August 24, 2009

AUGMENTED REALITY ADVANCES

“We believe we have created a worldwide platform that will bring both fun and relevant Augmented Reality experiences in one application to a growing audience.” 

That’s the claim of Layar, the Netherlands-based developer that launched its first “Reality Browser” in June – and last week rolled out the second generation with new contents.  

Augmented Reality may be the most futuristic use of mobile imaging, and the most complete use of a device that has a GPS sensor, camera, display, and connectivity to all the data on the web. Based on either location data or what a phone camera is aimed at, it displays data overlaid on the phone screen. Users can view houses for sale, popular bars and shops, tourist information of the area, and much more.

Layar says its Reality Browser platform serves as an enabler for mobile location services, and any database with geo-location information can be turned into a content layer.

For every “point of interest,” several actions can be taken, such as linking to a mobile site for more information, linking to a video or sound clip, clicking to call for reservations, and looking at a route description. 

Layar is a free application, now available on all Android phones. It will be available for the iPhone 3GS by the end of the summer, the company says.

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GoWeb3D, of Boulder, Colo., and Gurgaon, India, is a developer of mobile Augmented Reality content. Its new layers for Layar include:

• Yelp, which connects people with local businesses, restaurants, shopping, arts and entertainment, and services – with reviews and recommendations.

• The Wikipedia layer, which displays contextual Wikipedia information based on the phone location.

• FlickAR, which displays photos from the Flickr photo sharing site.

August 24, 2009

ALTEK PHONE PACKS 3X ZOOM

Claiming that most camera phones should instead be called “phones that take pictures,” Taiwanese camera maker Altek announced what it bills as a the first “professional camera phone.” 

Aimed at the China consumer market, the T8680 has a 3x optical zoom lens, 3-inch touchscreen, and 12-megapixel CCD image sensor.

It features an adjustable aperture with which to blur backgrounds to make foreground subjects more prominent, Altek says.

Also provided are 20 scene modes with automatic scene recognition, facial recognition, smile shutter and continuous capture.

August 3, 2009

LAYAR AUGMENTS REALITY

Augmented Reality combines a camera and location data to identify surroundings and overlay additional information on a camera phone screen. That’s been the theory, anyway. Now Amsterdam-based SPRXmobile will test it with what may be the first mobile Augmented Reality browser.

The company says Layar, available for Android now and for iPhone 3G S soon, lets you see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, jobs, healthcare providers, and ATMs. 

Layar works on mobile phones that include a camera, GPS, and a compass. With those sensors, it knows the location of the phone; and the compass determines in which direction the phone is facing. Relevant information is layered over the real-time display of what the camera is pointed at, and Layar “combines digital and reality to offer an augmented view of the world.”

June 22, 2009

RUGGED CASIO CAMPHONE

Verizon Wireless will finally offer a standout camera phone: the Exilim from Casio has a 5 megapixel camera with an *optical* 3x zoom and a 180-degree rotating display.

The company bills the phone as a “picture-perfect blend of digital camera functionality and entertainment features for the adventure seeker.”

Why “adventure?” Because it meets military specifications 810F standards for water immersion and rain, humidity, fog, shock, vibration, dust, solar radiation, altitude, and low and high temperatures. 

It will sell for $279.

June 15, 2009

MICROSOFT DEMOS DEEPZOOMPIX

Microsoft says its DeepZoomPix website provides a “tactile” way of exploring and interacting with photographic images on the web, and a seamless experience for navigating large numbers of images regardless of internet connection quality. 

The imaging technology will “empower users to dynamically zoom in on photos without having to navigate to higher resolution versions,” the company claims. “You never wait to reload a page – the entire experience is fluid.” 

DeepZoomPix' “Image Ingestion” imports images from a PC, or from Facebook, a Flickr API, or RSS feed. The Tile Processing slices the photos tiles for use by Silverlight Deep Zoom technology. The Tiles are stored as “blobs,” using the storage on the Windows Azure Services Platform. The Silverlight client viewer application manages and displays images, and the shareable mini-viewer can embed slide shows in websites. 

An evolution of PhotoZoom, DeepZoomPix is a web-based service and requires nothing other than a web browser with the Silverlight plug-in installed on a user’s PC. “It enables end users to create Deep Zoom experiences with the same ease of use as a typical photo-sharing site.” 

Microsoft calls DZP “a technology demonstration designed to showcase key technologies that enable the rich exploration of high-resolution photographs.” Currently, there are no plans to offer DZP as a product or a service. 

April 27, 2009

LG MAKES CAMERA PHONE SMARTER

LG Electronics says its new phone smart camera applications “take care of all the complicated camera adjustments and processing for you.”

The Viewty Smart is an 8-megapixel upgrade to the first LG Viewty, which LG says sold more than 6.5-million units. Also called the LG-GC900, it has adjustable ISO to 1600, an 800-by-400 pixel 3-inch touchscreen, multiface detection, and A-GPS-based geotagging to show the exact spot where a photo was taken. It’s 12.4mm deep, making it the slimmest 8-megapixel camera phone available, LG says. 

LG says its consumer preference surveys showed customers thought current camera phones were too complicated to operate.

The Intelligent Shot Mode addresses this as it analyzes the subject, background, and lighting conditions, and compares the data against seven preprogrammed scenarios to take perfect pictures every time. “This feature, still rare on high-end stand-alone compact digital cameras, is a first for camera phones,” the company claims. “This hassle-free mode completely eliminates the need to check settings before taking a photo. It even provides instantaneous feedback, showing exactly how the camera is analyzing a particular scene with real-time indicator bars.”

The Viewty Smart will go on sale in Europe in May.

April 27, 2009

CAMERA PHONE PENETRATION RISING

Fifty-three percent of U.S. households own at least one camera phone. That’s up from 46 percent in 2007, and 37 percent in 2006. That’s according to the 2009 PMA U.S. Camera/Camcorder Digital Imaging Survey, which also found that 10 percent of U.S. households own three or more camera phones. 

Eighteen percent of those surveyed say their camera phone performed at a level above their expectations – or even far beyond their expectations. Sixty-seven percent of users felt that the camera phone performed as expected. But 15 percent of camera phone users felt the camera performed below or far below their expectations.

April 6, 2009

SIXTH SENSE OVERLAYS INFORMATION

A smart system couples a camera phone and a mini-projector to overlay information in real-time on top of real-world objects and environments.

The concept was demonstrated at the TED conference. The camera phone is connected to the internet’s information, which the micro-projector displays automatically over relevant people, places, and things.

The recognition of those objects can be done on the camera-phone's own processor, or in the Cloud.

[Also, we think the information could better be shown to only the user via a heads-up display in sunglasses, rather than splashed over everything for all to see.]

Developed by Pranav Mistry and Pattie Maes at MIT, the full video of the demonstration is at: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html.

March 14, 2009

IMAGE OVERLAYS FOR "AUGMENTED REALITY"

"Augmented reality" layers visual info over your view of the physical world. 

Last week we noted Tonchidot's "Sekai Camera" application that lets you look through an iPhone's camera at nearby buildings, stores, sightseeing spots or objects, and also see tagged information such as graphics and text over the images.

The application does not require actual physical tags on the buildings for the camera to pick up -- instead it uses GPS to know your location, and taps into a database of tags associated with the area.

It can't tell where the phone's camera is pointed, so you have to scroll left or right to find relevant tags around you.

This week Microsoft demonstrated a research project that, instead of GPS, actually pictures where you are through the phone's camera: it matches shapes the camera sees to its visual database.

Relying on computer vision to recognize where you are from any angle or in differing lighting conditions is a challenge for the program --

But once it does, it can then overlay labels and added info on top of what you see.

At its annual TechFest, Microsoft also demonstrated technology that combines multiple simultaneous video streams of a single scene, and stitches them into a panoramic video.

February 27, 2009

PHONES ADD BETTER CAMERAS

This year's top camera-phones are upgrading to bigger screens, touch input, and 3-5MP sensors on average -- but some bleeding-edge models up the ante to 8MP or, in the case of Sony Ericson's "Idou" announcement last week, even 12MP with a 3.5-inch touchscreen.

The most exciting model might be Samsung's Omnia HD: the company claims it will have the world's first 720P HD video recording and decoding on a mobile, and the world's largest AM-OLED [Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode] screen on a mobile, at 3.7 inches -- which offers "unrivalled sharpness of tone, vivid colors and greater clarity in direct sunlight, as well as less power consumption," the company claims.

The phone's 8MP camera has autofocus, flash, face and smile detection. 

It uses the Symbian OS and comes with video editing software and an HDMI port.

Samsung's UltraTouch S8300 has a 2.8-inch touchscreen and 8MP camera with autofocus, dual-power LED, face and smile detection, and geotagging.

Sony Ericsson also announced the W995 Walkman, with a 2.6-inch screen and 8MP camera with flash.

Nokia adds some interesting photo features: a variable aperture from f/2.4 to f/4.8, a mechanical shutter that snaps at up to 1/1000th second, a dual LED flash, photo geotagging, and SD-resolution video.

That's all in the N86, which also has an 8MP sensor, an autofocusing Zeiss lens, and a 2.6-inch OLED display.

Also: the 6710 Navigator slider has a 2.6-inch display; the 6720 classic, a 2-inch display. Both have 5MP cameras. 

Leading laptop maker Acer wants to become one of the top five smart phone vendors. It announced a line of touch-enabled Windows Mobile phones:

The M900 has a 3.8-inch screen and a 5MP camera.

The DX900 has a 2.8-inch screen, 3MP camera and flash -- plus a secondary camera for video calls.

The F900 has a 3.8-inch screen and 3MP camera.

The X960 has 2.8-inch screen, 3MP camera, and 2nd camera for video calls.

HTC updated its Touch Diamond 2 with a 3-inch touchscreen; 5MP camera, and secondary camera for video calls. 

The Touch Pro2 has a 3.6 touchscreen, 3MP camera, and second camera for video calls.

HTC also announced its Android G2 phone, the Magic, with a 3-inch touchscreen and 3MP camera.

LG's Arena LG-KM900 has a 3-inch touchscreen and 5MP camera with autofocus and DVD-resolution video capture. It will be about $600.

February 20, 2009