Scalado demonstrates zero-lag cellphone camera

Great news for all you aspiring paparazzi -- it looks like someone has finally figured out how to eliminate that nasty camera phone shutter lag. By sending image data directly to the camera's display and capturing it as a modified SpeedTagged JPEG when the time comes to immortalize that precious moment (or romantic indiscretion), the Scalado Camera Solution not only takes nigh-on instantaneous photos, but also provides high quality, real-time preview, pan and zoom. With several camera phone sensor and module manufacturers (including Aptina, OmniVision Samsung, and MtekVision) already on the SpeedTags tip, it looks like that laggedy old camera phone may soon be a thing of the past. Don't believe us? Take a look at the demo video yourself. It's after the break.

[Via Slashphone]

[Newb Heriff @ Nov 21st 2008 1:42PM]

pwned

[Ray @ Nov 21st 2008 2:05PM]

Spread the news to htc...

[Google @ Nov 21st 2008 2:10PM]

Thank god.... until this came along I was actually stuck using my phone primarily as a phone... it was teeeeerrible.

[loocas @ Nov 21st 2008 6:27PM]

No shutter-lag, but the display still lags behind the actual scene it shoots, so...?

[Matt @ Nov 21st 2008 1:47PM]

I'm sure this is old news....This tech is in the SE C905...I know coz I have it =)

Absolutly no shutter lag at all and no lag when zoomin/panning around images.

[Fernando @ Nov 21st 2008 3:05PM]

No, I can assure you the C905 does not have this. This is really new and the only OS who has licensed it for now is Symbian

[Verlin Gradney @ Nov 21st 2008 1:48PM]

Still wasn't fast enough to catch where I lost pants. Damn pants thieves.

[PyRo1509 @ Nov 21st 2008 2:16PM]

*dives into pile of pants*

[Dusty Nipples @ Nov 21st 2008 1:56PM]

Now you can take better pictures on your iphone and still not be able to send them to anyone. GREAT!

[Leo M. @ Nov 21st 2008 2:43PM]

so funny...haha

have you ever heard of e-mail?

[Xenoterranos @ Nov 21st 2008 3:09PM]

Is that that thing that most of my dumb-phone owning friends can't readily access without also having a dataplan? MMS is popular for a reason.

[a @ Nov 21st 2008 3:21PM]

MMS picture quality doesn't even do justice to 1.3 mpx photos... I missed it at first, but I do think email is better. Granted there are still times that I'd like to send something to my friends and have them get it right away. But I do like to be able to actually see and easily save the images that I get, so email works well for this.

Of course the phone is capable of it. I think that they just didn't want crappy image quality images being sent to a nice new big screened phone.

And your friends can send MMS to your email. So belittle them when they send them to your phone number. Over and over. They'll learn how to use email.

And to make this comment post relevant: Better cameras always = yay.

[nikster @ Nov 21st 2008 5:27PM]

Maybe the iPhone already does this? I have not noticed any shutter lag which is the main reason the iPhone camera is a lot better than any of my previous phone cameras (looking at you N73) despite being "only" 2MP.

The idea seems like a no-brainer. I mean.. capture what you already see on the screen, how hard was that?

As for sending MMS, big deal, I send out more pictures via email than I ever have sent MMS, and they are much better quality too.

[Leo @ Nov 21st 2008 2:02PM]

AT FREAKING LAST...... Now just put some good glass in there and we'll talk

[aardWolf @ Nov 21st 2008 2:03PM]

Wow... He said the camera can even take pictures in the past AND the future!!!

[Kali4 @ Nov 21st 2008 2:30PM]

It's that Flux Capacitor circuitry.

[bandigolo @ Nov 21st 2008 2:08PM]

so is this all new hardware or are existing cameras upgradeable?

[Lowest Ranked @ Nov 21st 2008 2:41PM]

Existing cameras are still fucked.

[Jon Nelson @ Nov 21st 2008 2:25PM]

Finally! No more blurry pictures of drunk girls with their shirts half-way back down because my shitty camera phone couldn't snap a pic fast enough!

[Unique Gift Ideas @ Nov 21st 2008 3:48PM]

If lagging shutter speed is the problem, then you probably aren't hanging out with the right type of girls.

[Kali4 @ Nov 21st 2008 2:32PM]

RIP Mr. Blurrycam. We knew thee oh so well.

[Tired @ Nov 21st 2008 2:48PM]

Money shots will be so much better

[loocas @ Nov 21st 2008 8:54PM]

Don't forget about c*m-shots too, man!

Oh especially with the time shoot...

[Fernando @ Nov 21st 2008 3:03PM]

This demo was run on a Symbian OS / Texas Instruments platform. So the most likely manufacturer to get this earlier is Nokia!

[friedduck @ Nov 21st 2008 11:55PM]

So five minutes ago. One of the digital camera makers had a model (last year) that recorded constantly & when you took a photo it would show you the picture from _before_ you snapped the shutter. Next!

[bandigolo @ Nov 22nd 2008 1:38PM]

yes, it's so 5 minutes ago that no cell phones even have this feature anymore. Phone cameras have since been retrograded with the "so 20 minutes ago" technology out of pure spite.

[Valicore @ Nov 22nd 2008 1:43AM]

This is pretty awesome, ARE YOU LISTENING HTC? HTC! I am going to go postal if HTC keeps making cameras that take blurry pictures somewhere between 5 seconds and a minute after the moment has passed.

[bandigolo @ Nov 22nd 2008 1:42PM]

my Diamond's camera may be actually have the slowest shutter known to man. I think the Hubble telescope can react faster. You know what the best part is though? There's a self-timer option (i.e. 5, 10 seconds). What a completely unnecessary feature. I could dress up like a goddamn elf and jump in Santa's lap in the time that fucker takes to go off normally.

[FTR01 @ Nov 22nd 2008 5:47AM]

whoa, that's pretty awesome! lol, i wish i had a phone camera that could take zero lag photos, but meh, i have a DSLR for that.

[monsterbikeroot @ Nov 23rd 2008 12:50AM]

That is the most efficient informational video I have ever seen.

[Wwhat @ Nov 23rd 2008 3:48AM]

11th January 2008
Scalado, the leader in mobile imaging software solutions, has today announced that its CAPS™ imaging Software Development Kit (SDK) is now being used in more than 150 million mobile phone handsets.
The Swedish company currently has its software embedded in more than 50 different camera phone models, with suppliers such as SonyEricsson and Samsung signing licensing agreements with Scalado to power its imaging applications in new camera phones. LG also became Scalado customers during 2007. Scalado can now list four out of five of the top tier 1 mobile phone manufacturers as its licensees, as well as several handset manufacturers in Taiwan.

That was in januari, so you don't need to worry about their stuff reaching products then.

[kio @ Nov 24th 2008 4:01AM]

compact camera manufacturers should learn from that…