photos posts

Video Spy Cam Hidden in Car Key Fob

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Oct 24th 2009 at 5:10PM

It might not be the smallest camera we've ever seen, but the Fake Car Key Spy Camera definitely would be a nice stocking stuffer for an Inspector Gadget in training. The camera is designed to look like a remote device that unlocks a car, shoots video at 29-frames-per-second, snaps photos at a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels and records sound, too. There's also a slot for a MicroSD card so you can share your voyeuristic, er... spy vids with buddies. All for $63, and Brando even throws in an 8 gigabyte card for the extra paranoid.

Could you really get away with sneaking pics and videos with this thing? The pinhole-sized lens might not be noticeable, but subjects might wonder why you're pointing a car key remote at them. The only place you'll be able to use this unsuspectingly is in a parking garage. Even then, how long could a person pretend to forget where he parked his car? [From: Boing Boing and Brando]

Tags: camera, car, gadget, key, novelty, photos, spy, top, video

Cameras

Wearable Vicon Camera Lets You Log Every Moment of Your Life

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Oct 18th 2009 at 12:01PM

Potentially taking the place of moms and their ever-flashing cameras, a new device allows people to document their lives simply by wearing it. According to New Scientist, U.K.-based firm Vicon has licensed technology from Microsoft Research Cambridge in order to produce the camera, which automatically snaps pictures as users wear it around their necks. The device, which can be programmed to take photos as often as every 30 seconds, whenever light changes in an environment, or when the camera detects body heat, was originally designed to aid the memory of Alzheimer's patients by allowing them to look back on their "lifelogs" at the end of each day.

Now, Vicon has plans to mass-produce the camera. It will retail for around $820 when it's released to researchers in the next few months, but will hopefully cost less when it hits store shelves in 2010. Dubbed the ViconRevue, the camera can store about 30,000 pictures on its 1-gigabyte memory card, and it's about the size of a pendant. For scientific purposes, we think this device is a great idea. But most folks, ourselves included, don't lead lives so interesting that they warrant dozens of photographs throughout the day. Making the sandwich and sitting on the couch is boring enough. Watching ourselves as we make a sandwich and sit on the couch would be intolerable. [From: New Scientist]

Tags: camera, documentary, health, memory, photos, science, top

Cameras, iPod, iPhone

New Canon App Lets You Print From Your iPhone

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Oct 17th 2009 at 8:29AM

Sick of of transferring all those photos from your iPhone or iPod touch to your computer whenever you want to print? A new, free app from Canon, which was launched today, will cut out the middleman, making it easier to turn digital image albums into glossy photos.

According to Digital Photography Review, the Easy Photo-Print App allows users to wirelessly print photos from the devices mentioned above, but only using Canon PIXMA Wireless Photo All-In-One series printers, which include the PIXMA MP990, MP640, and MP560. Print options are basic: you can select the size of your photo (up to 8.5-by-11 inches), the type of paper, and the number of copies (up to 20 at once). There's even an option to place a border around the pic, although we'd imagine most will use other apps, like Adobe Photoshop or Best Camera App, for editing purposes.

Geeky photographers must be thrilled. Combining this app with onOne, which lets you remotely control your camera via your iPhone, would allow you to shoot, edit, and print without ever having to touch a camera. [From: Digital Photography Review]

Tags: apple, application, canon, iphone, ipodtouch, photos, printer, top, wireless

Audio/Video

'Eyewitness' Testimony Can Be Influenced by Fake Video, Study Finds

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Sep 17th 2009 at 6:41AM

If it appears on a video, or in a photograph, it must be true, right? A new study by a group of psychologists at the University of Warwick shows how dangerous it can be to accept video or photo evidence as fact, according to Wired.

In the study, 60 college students played a computerized gambling game, each student being matched against a researcher posing as a participant. If a player answered a question correctly, he or she could take fake money from a shared bank. Answer wrong, and he or she would have to put 'money' back into the bank. When the game was over, administrators showed each student participant a video that had been secretly altered to show the other participant (in fact, the researcher) cheating. Even though all of the students were told they should be 100-percent sure they saw the other cheat in person, and that confirmed cheaters would be punished, nearly half of the participants signed an eyewitness testimony based on the fake video. Some even "invented memories," according to researchers. When only told about the video evidence, a mere 10-percent gave an unwittingly false statement.

Tags: gambling, memory, photos, psychology, study, top, video, video editing, VideoEditing, witness

Web

'That Will Buff Out' Blog Shows Unbelievable Car Wrecks

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Sep 9th 2009 at 3:26PM

Those famous last words -- 'that will buff out' -- have been uttered more than a few times by folks who find their automobiles in, let's call them, 'compromising' situations. It's supposed to be a statement of reassurance, but seldom does it actually serve that purpose. Thanks to a new photoblog, called what else but 'That Will Buff Out,' you'll now know that whatever vehicular damage you might incur, things could always be worse.

The premise is simple: users submit photos of 'vehicles in compromising positions,' and you scroll through laughing at and commenting on the various entries till you cry. If you can imagine it (and sometimes even if you can't), there's a picture of it on this site. A van halfway sunk in some roadside swamp? Check. A white sedan hanging from a power line? Sure, it's there. And then there's our favorite (pictured above) -- a pickup truck stuck on the roof of a building. Just look at how thrilled those guys are to witness such an event.

There are no explanatory captions accompanying these pics, but none are needed. Don't feel guilty about laughing, though. After all, they say it's the best medicine. If only it repaired vehicles, too... [From: That Will Buff Out]

Tags: blogs, car crash, CarCrash, funny, photos, top, vehicle, web

Computers

Genius Bar Worker Finds Child Porn on Man's Computer

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Aug 26th 2009 at 10:26AM

While repairing a Fairfield, Connecticut man's computer, an Apple Store employee discovered something horrible hidden on the hard drive. No, it wasn't the new Jonas Brothers album. That's only enough to bring shame, but the images discovered on the Power Mac G5 brought an arrest.

According to the Stamford Advocate, 36-year-old Raymond Miller was arrested at the Stamford Town Center Apple Store after an employee working at the Genius Bar allegedly discovered photographs of naked 10- to 13-year-old girls on his computer. Miller brought his computer to the store because he was having problems with images overwriting other images. According to court documents, the employee discovered the explicit photos while searching for the computer problem, and contacted police at the mall. Miller was sent to jail and charged with one count of possession of child pornography, his bond being set at $75,000. Police are searching the computer for other evidence, and The Advocate reports that more charges could follow, pending the investigation.

Tags: apple, apple store, AppleStore, child pornography, ChildPornography, computer, crime, dumb criminal, DumbCriminal, images, photos, top

Web

Hacker Deletes 3,000 Photos From Man's Flickr Account

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Aug 5th 2009 at 6:35PM

A Flickr user recently woke up to his worst nightmare. His account, to which he had uploaded more than 3,000 photos over five years, was hacked and terminated by someone using a Hotmail account. But that's not all.

According to Gawker, Morgan Tepsic, a photographer and student living in Taiwan, spent days sending e-mails and making phone calls to both Flickr HQ and Yahoo! (owner of the site), only to have customer service reps tell him there was no way to recover the photographs, which he says he spent thousands of dollars developing. Tepsic says Flickr should have gone further to protect his account (for which he paid subscription fees) from hackers. He's right on, especially since he never received so much as an e-mail asking him to confirm the account's termination. As it stands, we can only assume that Flickr users pay to use a site that doesn't even backup its data. Gawker tried to get to the bottom of the site's backup procedures, but its e-mails to Yahoo! reps weren't returned.

Tags: backup, cloud computing, CloudComputing, customer service, CustomerService, flickr, hack, photos, top, yahoo

Google, Web

Google Street View Sees the Light... in Brooklyn

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Aug 5th 2009 at 3:20PM

Google Street View is well known for some of the crazy things picked up by its roving band of car-mounted cameras. There are mundane, if disturbing, sights -- like these shots of Bambi getting run down -- and more surreal images of lasers, ghosts, and alien invasions. But none of those is quite as otherworldly as the mysterious light in the heart of Brooklyn, New York.

The bright light erupting from the scenery may just be the result of a very dramatic lens flare and the setting sun, but that hasn't stopped people on the Internet from speculating that the Googlemobile can hit warp speed and has discovered a passage to Heaven, or some sort of "hellgate." One user pointed out: "It's Brooklyn. Trust me that that [sic] isn't Heaven."

Tags: brooklyn, google street view, googlemobile, GoogleStreetView, heaven, photos, street view, StreetView, top

Web

Mom Finds Her Kid's Photo Used in Online Adoption Scam

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Aug 3rd 2009 at 4:02PM

We've reported on the Missouri family who discovered that a photograph they'd posted online as a holiday greeting card was being used as an advertisement in the Czech Republic. More recently, a Massachusetts woman experienced a similar shock when a good samaritan alerted her to a personal photo that had been plucked from the Web, and was also being used for someone else's monetary gain.

According to WCVB TV5, though, the circumstances surrounding Jenni Brennan's violation of privacy were much more frightening than an advertising ploy. Some time ago, Brennan received an e-mail from a stranger stating that a Craigslist scammer had been using an image of her son Jake as part of an adoption scheme. The message included a link to the Craigslist ad, so Jenni sent an e-mail to the account associated with the posting. She discovered that for a mere $300, she could begin procedures for the adoption of her own son, who, according to the listing, was born in Canada and living in an orphanage in Cameroon.

Tags: craigslist, family photos, FamilyPhotos, photos, privacy, scam, security

Cameras

'Dark Flash' Eliminates Annoying Light From Picture-Taking Process

by Kaiser Hwang (RSS feed) — Jul 21st 2009 at 8:40AM

Flash photography lets us, among other things, take pictures in dimly lit situations. Unfortunately, when taking pictures of people, it often leads to the dreaded red eye and/or the deer-in-headlights effect, with blown out highlights and harsh shadows. The light itself can also be distracting, hence its exile from many museums, concerts, and public performances. But if NYU student Dilip Krishnan and assistant professor Rob Fergus's "dark flash" concept can iron out some wrinkles, all those problems may soon be a thing of the past.

According to New Scientist, this innovative flash works by emitting light in a wide range of frequencies, and then by filtering out the frequencies that wind up being visible. The result is a sharp, but oddly tinted image. To compensate for distorted colors, a second, flash-free image is taken immediately afterward, and the two are combined in software to produce a naturally toned, well lit image (see example above). Because the invisible flash depends upon ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) light, objects or materials that absorb said kinds of light won't appear in the photos. Even with that caveat, though, we could be looking at the biggest thing in cameras since, well, the flash. [From: New Scientist via Engadget]

Tags: camera, flash, light, photography, photos, top

Cameras, Computers

'Tourist Remover' Gets Rid of Annoying Photobombers

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Jul 4th 2009 at 8:02AM

Photobombers: the scourge of tourists and photographers everywhere. You snap a beautiful panoramic shot of the Mediterranean coast, but when you get home to organize your pics, there's some Euro-dude in the distance wearing a Speedo and picking his nose.

Tourist Remover, as reported by BoingBoing, provides a solution to those photo crashers, and to other creepy lurkers who won't get out of your frame. The software only requires that a stationary photographer take several pictures of the intended area. And it works for fixed (like with a tripod) as well as hand-held shots. The program then melds the multiple images into a "composite photo with no interfering elements" by eliminating anything that doesn't remain stationary throughout all of the photos.

Tags: photography, photos, software, top, tourist remover, TouristRemover

Web

Missouri Family's Christmas Card Photo Stolen for Czech Ad

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Jun 16th 2009 at 9:20AM

Instances of personal photos being poached from the Web and used for nefarious purposes abound. Typically, those stories involve the dissemination of incriminating images, which are then used to implicate or embarrass the owner. Typically, anyway.

A Missouri family recently learned that a holiday photo had been plucked from the Web. But, instead of being used for shady purposes, the image was being displayed as an advertising tool in the Czech Republic. According to The Telegraph, Jeff and Danielle Smith, and their two children, originally used the photo as a Christmas card and posted it online for friends to see. Last month, one of those friends living in Prague happened to notice a blown-up version of the photo, displayed in a local grocery store's window. You can see the original photo here, and the Czech advertisement, here.

The store owner, who said he would happily apologize for using the photo as a promotional device, admitted to finding the image on the Web, but said he believed it to be computer-generated. Ms. Smith said she understands the mix-up, but will add an identifiable watermark to future uploaded photos -- sound advice for anyone.

Tags: family, photos, piracy, privacy, top, watermark, weird

Cameras

Mini Camera Offers Dog's Eye View of World

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Jun 11th 2009 at 3:05PM

Ever wonder what the world would look like through the eyes of a dog? Probably full of doggie rear-ends, water bowls, and human legs, we would speculate. But pet-lovers need guess no more; curious owners can now find out for sure with the help of the Pet's Eye View Camera.

Boing Boing Gadgets tested out the tiny round camera, which snaps onto the collar. The $39.99 petcam can be set to take 640 by 480 pixel photos every one, five, or 15 minutes, and it stores up to 40 photos on an 8-megabyte memory card. After five or six hours, the camera automatically erases the card so more photos can be taken.

After a test run with a couple small dogs, Boing Boing reported a few complaints with the gadget -- namely, the product's lack of blur reduction and motion sensors. We checked out the photos, which were mostly just blurry shots of the ground, and agree. We wouldn't be too pleased to pay $40 for a bunch of photos that look like the work of a dog on a four-day bender. Similarly, 8 megabytes? In a time when gigabytes of storage can be purchased for well under $20, 8 megabytes of storage is incredibly small.

You'd think that the folks at Uncle Milton, who doubtless have the money and time to appropriately refine the camera, would be able to come up with something as good as, if not better than, amateur enthusiasts Michael and Deidre Cross. But, for our money, the Crosses' DIY pet camera, and their kitty Cooper, easily walk away with the blue ribbon. [From: Uncle Milton and Boing Boing Gadgets]

Tags: camera, dogs, novelty, pets, photos

Computers, Webware, Reviews

Make Online Slideshows Without the Making

by Evan Shamoon (RSS feed) — Feb 20th 2009 at 10:49AM

Do you like making stuff, but absolutely hate the idea of putting any effort into it? Well, we have just the thing for you.

Essentially, Animoto is a Web app that produces videos from photos and music that you upload to the site. It analyzes the data and automatically generates a slide show, pieced together with crazy cuts and visual transitions. It's sort of like a movie trailer, but with pictures of your cat sleeping and your car sitting in the driveway.

Supposedly, the engine even takes into consideration the rhythm, genre, and tempo of the music you insert and makes cuts appropriately. As a result, no two videos are ever the same. Even cooler, you can just point the service to your online photo collections (on Picasa, Flickr, etc), and have it use those for content, rather than having to upload images to the service directly. [From: Animoto]

Related Links:

Tags: animation, animoto, flickr, new apps, NewApps, online slideshows, OnlineSlideshows, photo sharing, photography, photos, PhotoSharing, picasa, slideshow, techtip, techtips, web apps, WebApps

Cameras, Computers

'Cat Photographer' Takes Pictures With Collar Cam

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Dec 18th 2008 at 1:14PM

Cooper the Cat Photographer Makes Our Heart Grow Three Sizes

We're not really sure why this is so interesting. It's no Puppy Cam, that's for sure, but Cooper, the Cat Photographer is oddly irresistible.

Michael and Deidre Cross embarked on a project about a year ago in which they strapped a light-weight digital camera to neck of their orange tabby, Cooper, once a week. The camera snaps a new pic every two minutes and the Crosses post them on a blog and on Flickr for the world to see.

Take a gander at the read link below to put yourself in the shoes of a cat for a while, and marvel at how the cat takes better photos than you. [From: Urlesque]

Tags: blog, blogs, cat, cats, cute, flickr, funny, pets, photography, photos, silly, top

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'Black Friday' Deals to Watch For

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Black Friday' Deals to Watch For

Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.

Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.

Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.

Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.

HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.

HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.

HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.

GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.

Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.

Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.

Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.

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