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Sarnoff develops new test patterns for digital TV equipment
Around these parts, "Joe Kane" is pretty much synonymous with "test patterns." The latest round of DVE has finally completed its winding journey to the land of HD DVD and Blu-ray, and just in time, too. A real grand-daddy of TV, Sarnoff Corp., will be showing off some new digital test patterns at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show next week. If you've never heard of Sarnoff, look into David Sarnoff and Philo Farnsworth for a fascinating bit of TV history. The tried and true test patterns are useful, but show their analog roots with things like overscan, for example. These new test patterns are constructed for today's digital signal chain and take things like bit depth and format conversion into consideration. Don't put that new copy of DVE in the shredder just yet, though -- this test material is aimed at broadcasters. Rest easy with your DVE adjustments, at least for now.[Image courtesy ReverseTimePage]
Sarnoff researchers tout GPS fail-safe system
Researchers at the Sarnoff Corporation in Princeton, New Jersey claim to have built a better GPS system, one that'll never fail, even when confronted with impenetrable obstacles like tall buildings, tunnels, and for the spelunkers among you, caves. The secret ingredient, it seems, is a new video processing technology the Sarnoff researchers have developed, which makes use of two forward-facing and two rear-facing cameras placed on a vehicle or helmet that capture stereoscopic video to help determine the location of the vehicle when the GPS goes dark. The complete workings of the technology are still under wraps, but according to the MIT Technology Review, the system can pinpoint the position of a vehicle or individual to within one meter after traversing a half a kilometer without access to GPS. As you can probably guess, there's no indication as to when the technology might actually be available for public consumption, although based on the source of funding, the Office of Naval Research, you can safely bet that the military will get its hands on it before you or we do.[Via Navigadget]
