Posts Filed under: Cameras

Ultimate 'VideoMan' Suit Lets You Project Movies Anywhere

by Evan Shamoon, posted Dec 5th 2008 at 9:08AM

Not content to simply be in movies, the VideoMan suit is designed to allow you to actually be the movies.

Actually, the real goal of its creators is to put together the ultimate power suit for protesting and rabble-rousing. The rig consists of a video camera, projector, portable battery pack (a big one), power inverters, amplifiers and other noise generators. And makes you look like a ridiculous Ghostbuster.

In theory, we kinda like it. But in the wrong hands -- like someone very annoying with something very annoying to say -- it could be unspeakably dangerous. In other words: Keep this thing away from the Verizon guy. (Yes, we can already hear you now.) [From: Techeblog]

This Robot Makes Pancakes

by Donald Melanson, posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 12:02PM

Yaskawa Electric's Motoman SDA10 robot has been out and about for a little while now (along with its not-so-distant relatives), but it's apparently not just getting by on its good looks alone, and it recently took advantage of Osaka's International Next-Generation Robot Fair to show off its newly developed cooking skills. While there unfortunately doesn't seem to be any video available, the word is it was able to take an order from a customer using its voice recognition capabilities and whip up some okonomiyaki (a pancake, of sorts) from scratch, with it even going so far as to serve it to the customer and top it off with some condiments. As if one human-replacing activity wasn't enough, the bot also recently made an appearance on a Japanese TV show where it assembled a camera and, thankfully, there is a video of that -- check it out after the break.

Continue reading This Robot Makes Pancakes

How to Turn Your Scanner Into a Grainy Camera

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 24th 2008 at 11:26AM

Here's a DIY project not for the weak-of-heart (or impatient). MAKE, a magazine completely dedicated to the art of DIY, has intriguing directions on how to turn your flat-bed scanner into a nifty camera capable of taking grainy black and white photos.

You probably have a scanner sitting around somewhere (likely untouched and collecting dust since 1999) and the magnifying glass can be had for $.99 from a local store, but we're pretty sure most of you don't have foam core on hand. Unless you're an arts and crafts fanatic ordering the foam core to create the focusing mechanism for this scanner-camera probably isn't worth while.

It's a neat project, but seeing as how you could probably create a similar effect with a digital camera and 'Photoshop' we cant imagine wasting the time and man hours to build this one-trick-pony. Check out the video above for step by step instructions. [From: MAKE, Via: GeekSugar]

Google Brings LIFE Magazine Photo Archives to the Web

by Thomas Houston, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 11:01AM

Google continues its march towards organizing all the world's information. Just what has it done this time? Google worked with LIFE magazine to digitize and distribute LIFE's enormous archive of photographs, which span over a century and countless cultural, political, scientific sporting, and other historical moments.

Since this was released, we've spent far too much time browsing the archives, and we've found everything from Hitchcock to Billie Holiday, from 'The Third Man' to '2001,' and the historic Lindbergh flight to the Apollo 11 launch. The majority of the photos have titles, descriptions, photographer information, and dates, which makes searching for photos from "World War 2" and "New York," for example, surprisingly easy. You can search by decade, by year, and by pretty much any other search term you can think of. Paul Newman? Check. Dresden, Germany? Got it. Picasso wearing a cow's head mask? Of course!

Continue reading Google Brings LIFE Magazine Photo Archives to the Web

Pure Digital Debuts Flip Mino HD

by Thomas Ricker, posted Nov 12th 2008 at 9:56AM

Pure Digital's Flip Mino just broke free from the confines of the VGA kiddie-pool to find itself tip-toeing gingerly into the shallow end of sacred high-definition waters. But with a retail price of $230, it's best to temper your expectations of the new Flip Mino HD. For that price you get about an hour's worth of fixed zoom, 720p, MPEG-4 video recorded to 4GB of built-in flash memory. Plug the USB cam into your PC or Mac to launch the built-in FlipShare editing software for fine-tuning your videos before sharing (compressed down to 480x270) to MySpace, YouTube or direct over email -- HD sharing via an unnamed partner is coming early next year according to Pure.

Walt's buddy, Katie Boehret, over at the Wall Street Journal already put hands to gear and came away duly impressed by the video and improved sound quality. The she-Walt also found the FlipShare software to be much improved over the Flip's previous bundled wares while the camera remained dead-simple to use. All in all, well worth the $50 premium over the previous Flip Mino. Sample video posted after the break.

Continue reading Pure Digital Debuts Flip Mino HD

Target Holiday Gift Card Doubles as Digital Camera

by Engadget Staff, posted Nov 11th 2008 at 12:30PM

Okay, we don't know who came up with this idea, but we have to give them some credit for innovation, not to mention (in our opinion) some pretty attractive design sense. Yes, Target's new gift card gimmick this holiday season is that it doubles as a cute, disposable digital camera. The little device runs on two AAA batteries, has a self-timer, and is packaged with a USB cord, driver disc, instruction manual and a voucher for 40 free prints from Target. The camera itself is a 1.2-megapixel affair with 8MB of memory on-board, which means it can store about 50 images. Now, we know this just a ploy to get us to buy Target gift cards, but we're kind of smitten with this little thing. Oh, and: Bah! Humbug! [Via Coolest Gadgets]

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How to Modify Your Scanner to Be a Camera

by Lee Bains, posted Nov 10th 2008 at 7:19PM

Thanks to GeekSugar.com, we located this video tutorial on how to convert your flatbed scanner into a camera on Make.com.

Since even inexpensive digital cameras produce pretty good pictures these days, and since you can use a scanner to accurately scan your traditional photographs, we're thinking of this project as more of a digital party trick than anything else.

And while the folks at GeekSugar refer to the scanner-camera's pictures as "vintage-y," we think they look a lot more more like first-generation, black and white digital pictures than first-generation, black and white tin types. That, of course, begs the question: How old does something have to be in order to be classified as "vintage?" Anyway, head on after the break for a more detailed writeup on how to mod your scanner to take pictures. [From Make, via GeekSugar]

Continue reading How to Modify Your Scanner to Be a Camera

Obama's Personal Photographer Posts Election Pics on Flickr

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 8th 2008 at 1:55PM

Behind the Scenes Election Night Photos on Flickr

It used to be that the only place you could get behind the scenes photos of political campaigns was from established photo-journalists published in mainstream print media outlets like Time and Life. Much like his methods for fund-raising and grass-roots organizing, Obama seems to be taking a more transparent, Web-oriented approach to photography and the campaign image.

The historic night with the Obama camp was documented by David Katz, his long time personal photographer, and 82 of the resulting images were posted straight to flickr by the campaign, rather than waiting several weeks for a spread in a glossy magazine or feature story on the Web. In fact, months of images from the campaign trail are available on flickr, and they're interesting to compare with the regular high-resolution pro shots we're so used to seeing in newspapers, magazines, and on the Web. The above photo shows Obama quietly watching John McCain's concession speech. Other snapshots show equally personal moments, like his family pausing to look at the new president elect with pride, moments before he took the stage to give his acceptance speech.

The photo album is clearly inundated with traffic: Currently most photos are loading slowly and flickr may offer an error message. But, give it time, and you'll get your chance to take a look behind the scenes of this historic moment. [From: Gawker]

Augmented Reality Brings Pop-Up Books into the 21st Century

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 3rd 2008 at 7:16PM

Children at the Frankfurt Book Fair were treated to an unexpected surprise last week when they swung by a booth run by ArsEdition and Metaio. A book called 'Aliens & UFOs' was being shown off that uses "augmented reality" technology from Metaio.

Metaio's Unifeye software uses a standard-issue Webcam and a Windows-based PC, and the system is able to render real-time 3-D images that float above the pages on your computer screen. This 21st century update of the timeless pop-up book requires no special markings or paper to function -- instead, the software uses the camera to recognize the specific dimensions and images on a page and renders the appropriate models and animations. Moving the book around causes the 3-D rendering to follow the pages around, but only as long as they stay within the field of view of the camera. We know, it sounds kinda zany, but it makes sense immediately when you see the video after the break.

Metaio hopes to extend this technology beyond children's books to catalogs and presentations for designers. Imagine picking up an IKEA catalog and being able to see photo realistic 3-D renderings of the furniture in a room, allowing you to get a better sense of its dimensions.

Continue reading Augmented Reality Brings Pop-Up Books into the 21st Century

How to Take Better Night Photos

by Evan Shamoon, posted Nov 1st 2008 at 5:16PM

DIY photography Web site Photojojo has compiled a series of tips for aspiring night shooters. It might take a little bit of work and planning, but you can shoot great photos at night. The article goes through various approaches you can take -- using your camera's Night-Portrait Mode, being the most obvious -- and helps you sort through what might be most appropriate for your particular situation. It covers (in minimal detail) high ISO settings (the digital equivalent of using different-speed film on analog cameras), as well as motion and color tips.
Our favorite tip, however, is the last one.

"Bokeh" means the parts of your photo that aren't in focus. We like those parts.

A quirk of physics dictates that unfocused points of light in a photograph take on the shape of the aperture. You can make a lens hood with a specially-shaped aperture (a heart, for example) and turn all the points of light into that shape.

It's really easy, super cheap, and lends an unexpected "how-did-you-do-that?" touch to night photos. Make any shape you want: stars, ghosts, butterflies. You can even buy specially-shaped hole punches at craft stores.

Now, young photographer: go forth, and bokeh. [From: Photojojo]

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