ImageProcessing
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‘Babylon 5’ is great, so why does it look so bad?
When the histories of this golden age of television are written, they will likely begin with The Sopranos. But that would be a mistake because the template a lot of modern-day TV copies was instead created by Babylon 5. A decade before The Wire would be hailed as a "novel for television," B5 was a hyper-serialized grand story that was conceived as a single five-year epic.
Google flips on Pixel 2's HDR+ feature for your go-to photo apps
The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL include Pixel Visual Core, Google's first custom imaging chip that allows for HDR+ quality pictures in third-party apps like Instagram and Snapchat. But Pixel 2 users haven't been able to take advantage of those capabilities because the co-processor hasn't been enabled. Well, they'll be able to soon because Google announced today that it's turning on Pixel Visual Core, bringing the HDR+ technology that's been available through the Pixel 2's main camera app to other photography, social media or camera apps.
MIT imaging chip creates natural-looking flash photos
Mobile image processing in itself isn't special when even high dynamic range shooting is virtually instant, at least with NVIDIA's new Tegras. A new low-power MIT chip, however, may prove its worth by being a jack of all trades that works faster than software. It can apply HDR to photos and videos through near-immediate exposure bracketing, but it can also produce natural-looking flash images by combining the lit photo with an unassisted shot to fill in missing detail. Researchers further claim to have automatic noise reduction that safeguards detail through bilateral filtering, an established technique that uses brightness detection to avoid blurring edges. If you're wondering whether or not MIT's work will venture beyond the labs, don't -- the project was financed by contract manufacturing giant Foxconn, and it's already catching the eye of Microsoft Research. As long as Foxconn maintains interest through to production, pristine mobile photography won't be limited to a handful of devices.
Chinese androids wear tracksuits, play sports, but not at the same time (video)
When we last caught up with the Beijing Institute's family of bots, their abilities extended to slow (but pretty) tai chi moves. Returning three years later, we see that they're coming along nicely: BHR-4 is still going through the old graceful routines, but now he's wearing a human face and fetching sportswear to look like one of his creators. The 140-pound android beats certain Japanese alternatives by having both a fully-actuated body and a face that can mimic emotions, like surprise and fear when someone tries to give it a decent hair cut. Meanwhile, brother BHR-5 doesn't bother with appearances, but instead has graduated to playing ping-pong in the hope of one day taking on rivals from Zhejiang University. He uses high-speed image processing and 32 degrees of freedom to pull off rallies of up to 200 shots, and he'll do his utmost to impress you in the video after the break. [Image and video credit: CCTV-4]
Carnegie Mellon researchers develop robot that takes inventory, helps you find aisle four
Fed up with wandering through supermarket aisles in an effort to cross that last item off your shopping list? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Intel Science and Technology Center in Embedded Computing have developed a robot that could ease your pain and help store owners keep items in stock. Dubbed AndyVision, the bot is equipped with a Kinect sensor, image processing and machine learning algorithms, 2D and 3D images of products and a floor plan of the shop in question. As the mechanized worker roams around, it determines if items are low or out of stock and if they've been incorrectly shelved. Employees then receive the data on iPads and a public display updates an interactive map with product information for shoppers to peruse. The automaton is currently meandering through CMU's campus store, but it's expected to wheel out to a few local retailers for testing sometime next year. Head past the break to catch a video of the automated inventory clerk at work.
The Engadget Interview: Nokia Lead for Imaging Experience Damian Dinning at MWC 2012 (video)
Hot on the heels of yesterday's interview with Stefan Pannenbecker, we had a chance to sit down with Damian Dinning, Lead Manager for Imaging Experience at Nokia, to discuss the mother of all cameraphones -- the Symbian Belle-based 808 PureView -- which was announced yesterday at Mobile World Congress. With such incredible specs as a 41-megapixel sensor and f/2.4 Carl Zeiss autofocus lens, we wanted to get a better understanding of the technology behind this flagship shooter. Watch the video to find out how Nokia is redefining mobile photography by using sub-pixel interpolation and oversampling for high-quality digital zooming and image stabilization, plus improved low-light performance.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 flexes its imaging muscle (video)
While we already know that Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 will offer a quad-core variant, incorporate LTE and use a 28nm manufacturing process, the company posted an article to its media blog ahead of Mobile World Congress showcasing the new features provided by the chipset's Image Signal Processor. You're likely familiar with some of the imaging functionality available in Qualcomm's existing Snapdragon processors -- technology like Scalado's Rewind (pictured above) which we've covered before. The new SoC cranks things up a notch with support for up to three cameras (two in the back for 3D plus one front-facing), 20-megapixel sensors and 1080p HD video recording at 30fps. In addition to zero shutter lag, the Snapdragon S4 includes proprietary 3A processing (autofocus, auto exposure and auto white balance) along with improved blink / smile detection, gaze estimation, range finding and image stabilization. Rounding things off are gesture detection / control, augmented reality and computer vision (via Quacomm's FastCV). Want to know more? Check out the source link below, then hit the break for video demos of the S4's image stabilization and gesture-based imaging chops.
ITC patent ruling against Apple will stand, Kodak nods approvingly
July is shaping up to be a pretty good month for Kodak. Just a few weeks after granting the camera-maker a second wind in its ongoing patent battle against Apple and RIM, the ITC has issued yet another decision in its favor, determining that a May ruling against Cupertino will stand. At issue is an Apple complaint, filed in April 2010, charging Kodak with infringement of two patents on image processing and power management. On May 12, ITC Judge Robert Rogers shot down Apple's attack, ruling that the patents were not infringed and that one of them was invalid. The full Court had been scheduled to review Rogers' decision later this year, but that won't be happening, now that the ITC has decided to close the investigation (see the PDF, below). Kodak was understandably pleased with the result, though its focus will now turn to August 30th, when an administrative law judge is expected to weigh in on the company's patent offensive against both RIM and Apple.
Fujitsu's next-gen Milbeaut image processor does single-chip Hi-Vision video, 20MP stills
Fujitsu's latest image processor, the Milbeaut MB91696AM, has a new bag of tricks on tap, and it's fixing to unload them in April. The new Milbeaut sports ARM processors and a "newly-developed" Full HD H.264 codec engine, making for 14-megapixel shooting at 8fps (or about 20 megapixels at 5.5fps) and low-noise Hi-Vision video recording at 1920 x 1080. So the processor, in its sixth iteration, sports high resolution photos and HD video all on the same chip, and features continuous photography speeds up to five times faster than its predecessors. Fujitsu's got plans to show off Milbeaut's mobile solutions at MWC next week, and we wouldn't be surprised to see the MB91696AM make its debut in Barcelona as well. Either way, samples of the new processor is scheduled to ship starting in April for ¥3,000 (right around $36) a pop, which means new Milbeaut-equipped cameras won't shouldn't be far behind. Full PR after the jump.
Harvard and MIT researchers working to simulate the visual cortex to give computers true sight
It sounds like a daunting task, but some researchers at Harvard and MIT have banded together to basically "reverse engineer" the human brain's ability to process visual data into usable information. However, instead of testing one processing model at a time, they're using a screening technique borrowed from molecular biology to test a range of thousands of models up against particular object recognition tasks. To get the computational juice to accomplish this feat, they've been relying heavily on GPUs, saying the off-the-shelf parallel computing setup they've got gives them hundred-fold speed improvements over conventional methods. So far they claim their results are besting "state-of-the-art computer vision systems" (which, if iPhoto's skills are any indication, wouldn't take much), and they hope to not only improve tasks such as face recognition, object recognition and gesture tracking, but also to apply their knowledge back into a better understanding of the brain's mysterious machinations. A delicious cycle! There's a video overview of their approach after the break. [Thanks, David]
3D Camera adds depth to your iPhone photography
3D photo apps are not new to the iPhone platform, but a new app from Juicy Bits looks promising in terms of making those pictures with depth a lot easier to take and view.3D Camera 1.1 [US$1.99, click opens iTunes] is now available for iPhone OS 2.2 and 3.0 devices, and it lets you take photos that use one of three methods to create the illusion of 3D: red/cyan anaglyphs that require those funky 3D glasses, stereograms that create 3D images when your eyes look at them a certain way, and wiggle stereograms (or wiggle-grams) that use animated GIF images to provide the "depth". If you need a place to buy the goofy glasses, Juicy Bits lists several sources on their website To take the photos, you use one of two methods. If you're planning on taking an anaglyph or sterogram, you take one picture, move the iPhone camera slightly to the right, and take another photo. To make a wiggle stereogram, you point directly at the same object from two slightly different vantage points. The app provides instructions on exactly how to take the two photos each time you launch it. How are the results? Well, I haven't tried a red/cyan anaglyph yet, but if you use "crossviewing" (crossing the eyes slightly so that the two images overlap and form a third 3D image) you should be able to see depth in the test image seen below. If you use 3D Camera or any of the other 3D photo apps for iPhone, be sure to send some of your best pics to our Flickr pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/tuawrigs/pool/
Sigma Designs acquires Gennum's VXP image processing business
It was pretty much a done deal already, but now the final bit of paperwork has apparently been pushed. Sigma Designs has finally completed its acquisition of Gennum's VXP image processing business, which will enable it to "acquire assets of the VXP group including, but not limited to, products and intellectual property." As part of the deal, some 46 employees will be joining Sigma Designs -- oh, and Sigma's pocket book will be getting $18 million lighter, too.[Via Widescreen Review]
Acer's new HD DVD Laptops; NVIDIA or ATI?
Engadget already let us know about rumors indicating Acer would be one of the first third parties to release notebooks with either HD DVD or Blu-ray drives. Now, both NVIDIA and ATI have announced that their graphics cards will be available in Acer's HD DVD laptops. The Aspire 9110, 9510 and 9800 will all feature graphics technology from NVIDIA, including their PureVideo HD acceleration. The Aspire 5670 will utilize ATI's Mobility Radeon X1600 GPU and Avivo high-def acceleration. According to Acer's announcement, all will feature HDMI and HDCP support for outputting high-def content to TVs. The LCD screens on the laptops themselves range in size from 15.4 to 20.1 inches, plus Core Duo CPUs, Acer's stereo speaker and subwoofer technology as well as S/PDIF output for Dolby and DTS output. They should all be available later on this month, no price mentioned.Read - NVIDIA powers Acer HD DVD LaptopsRead - ATI drives high definition in Acer HD DVD LaptopsRead - Acer unveils high definition notebooks
