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Philips New iPad2 App Measures Your Heart Rate and Breathing

Philips new Vital Signs app is able to accurately diagnose your health using the forward facing camera on the iPad2. By watching small changes in your skin colour, the app is able to determine your heart rate. Similarly, it is able to determine your breathing rate by watching your chest movements. I believe we will be seeing a lot more programs like this in the near future as it will help diagnose patients without them having to go to a hospital or medical center.

 

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MIT Creates a Camera that Captures at the Speed of Light (1 Trillion FPS)

Believe it or not, MIT researchers have created a new method of capturing video at high speeds. At one trillion frames per second, their footage is so fast that you are able to watch as the light passes through a scene. Since it’s difficult to accurately sample every frame at that speed, they need to capture the scene several times in order to produce a fluid video.

 

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This Aquos Phone has Amazing Image Stabilization

The Aquos SH-01D phone has some incredible image stabilization, as shown by the following video. I’m not sure what else to say other than you have to see it to believe it.

 

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3D Laser Plasma Display

I’ve been very vocal about my dislike of 3D televisions, but three dimensional holographic displays look a lot more promising. This display developed by Burton, uses lasers to project 50,000 dots into mid air (or underwater) to create three dimensional objects. The technology is relatively new and has room for improvement, but I think it’s a fantastic starting point since all previous attempts at 3d are simulated, while this display is true 3d.

 

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Microsoft is Creating a Holodeck

Star Trek fans around the world must be celebrating because Microsoft has posted this video showing what looks to be a holodeck. The display uses a Kinect system to track the user’s movements, therefore allowing the software to accurately project objects onto the plexiglass. It’s amazing to me how science fiction movies come up with these creative ideas long before they become reality.

 

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Lytro Camera Revealed

After months of speculation, Lytro finally revealed their new technology camera. As most of you know, this camera allows you to take a photograph, and change the focus afterwards. This is possible because instead of capturing a single plane of light, the camera captures the entire light field. I was a little surprised at how small it is, but it does the job none the less. While I don’t think this camera is going to be a “game changer”, it certainly is one of the most exciting things to happen to the world of photography in recent memory. The 8GB version, which holds 350 photographs, costs $399 and comes in Electric Blue or Graphite. The 16BG version, which holds 750 photographs, costs $499 and comes in Red Hot.

 

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Introducing The Galaxy Nexus Phone

Google and Samsung just announced the Galaxy Nexus phone. It has some interesting features, including Face Unlock, where the phone automatically unlocks your phone via facial recognition software. Photographic features include Live Effects and Single Motion Panoramic Camera. It also has Google+ integration (obviously). Does Apple finally have a competitor? Only time will tell. It should be available in November, and sources are guessing the price to be somewhere around the $299 mark. Watch the 2 minute video to get an overview of all the phone’s features.

 

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What the iPhone 4s Camera Looks Like

It’s hard to believe that something so small could be capable of producing great photos and video. The folks over at Chipworks took apart the new iPhone 4s to see which manufacturers supplied their products to Apple. While they point out that Apple may have sourced more than one manufacturer due to the large number of units they produced, the results from their investigation can be read below.

 

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Software Turns Photographs into Three Dimensional Environments

Once in a while we get to witness a ground breaking technology that literally changes our way of thinking. This new approach to manipulating photographs is really quite ingeniousness and has applications both in the 3D realm (imagine taking a photograph of your living room and inserting various pieces of furniture to see how well they fit) as well in the world of photography (imagine being able to replace or add items seamlessly into a photograph). You really need to see the following video to fully understand it’s capabilities.

 

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Scientists Can Put Your Thoughts into Video. Well, Sorta.

This is a little complicated, so let’s hope I get this right. Using a fMRI, researchers at UC Berkeley studied how a person’s brain responds to specific video clips. Based on the data they recorded, and by using an algorithm, they predicted how our brains would react to a large database of other video clips. The clips that were most similar to how our brains viewed the original footage were merged together, which is what you see in the following video.

 

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Real Time Face Substitution is Awesome

arturo recently posted a video of himself changing faces in real time. It looks like it should be a scene from a sci-fi movie. The future is both amazing and scary.

 

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Wikitude Augmented Reality GPS

If you have difficulty reading maps, then the Wikitude Augmented Reality GPS navigation for smart phones might be of interest to you. Instead of viewing basic maps when you drive, the screen on your phone shows streaming images of the actual scene in front of you. Add the navigation arrows within the scene, and you have augmented reality. They claim one of the saftey features is that even if you are looking at the GPS device, you are still able to see the events unfolding ahead of you. What do you think? Is this a helpful addition to GPS devices?

 

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Kinect Controlled Photographic Exhibition

Here is a photography exhibit that allows you to explore images by gesturing with your hands through the use of a modified Kinect device. It was put together by the University of Lincoln. The controlling movements appear to be the same as those used on an iPhone or iPad, so I’ll bet it’s relatively easy to operate. Users can also step on various footprints on the floor to switch from image to image. The gigapixel photographs are extremely large and this technology allows visitors to view each image in detail.

 

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The Search for the Lost da Vinci Fresco

In 1505, legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci started painting a fresco mural in the town hall of Renaissance Florence. Despite never finishing the artwork depicting The Battle of Anghiari, many scholars consider his painting to be a turning point in Renaissance art. It was studied by many people for more than 40 years before it disappeared. Some people think it was covered up by another fresco created by another artist. Now a team of scientists, teamed up with a photographer, are going to try to take a photograph through the wall to see if Leonardo’s masterpiece is still there. And they need your help, to the tune of $266,500. They have turned to Kickstarter to raise enough funds to purchase the equipment needed.

 

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Cyborg Eye Transmits Video Footage to an External Device

Rob Spence, who lost one of his eyes in a shooting accident when he was young, has had a miniature camera place inside his prosthetic eye. The tiny camera, which measures 3.2 mm squared, transmits a video signal to a hand held device where it can be viewed in real time. While the cyborg eye does not help Rob regain his vision, it shows how technology is moving towards fixing or improving our bodies. The makers of the video game Deus Ex commissioned Rob to see how close current technology could match science fiction films, and it appears they are getting quite a bit of attention for their efforts.

 

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First Ever Lytro Fashion Shoot

You may remember our post about the revolutionary Lytro Camera, that allows you to re-focus images after they have been taken. Fashion model Coco Rocha recently had a photo shoot using the Lytro Camera. Watch the following video to see behind the scenes of the first Lytro fashion shoot. Follow the link below to see the final image, which you can re-focus with a single click of the mouse.

 

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Raising Funds for an Artificial Camera Eye

Tanya Vlach avoided death in a car accident in 2005, but unfortunately lost one of her eyes. Instead of replacing it with an aesthetic eyeball, she wants one capable of recording 720p HD video as well as one capable of taking photographs. The images would be transmitted wirelessly to another device. She is currently on Kickstarter, trying to raise $15,000 to make her dream a reality. More on her story after the break.

 

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This is How Cameras of the Future Will Look

At the Hello Demain exhibition in France, Nikon displayed some interesting concept cameras. While we don’t have that much information at this point in time about how they will work, it is very clear Nikon has taken some drastic leaps in terms of how they think users will interact with their equipment.

 

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AMP Real Time HDR Video Camera

One feature I have been waiting a long time for, is the ability for cameras to take a photograph without having to worry about loss of information. Contrast Optical Design & Engineering is making that dream a reality. Their AMP Technology captures multiple exposures simultaneously, with a total exposure range of more than 17 stops! Their paper will be presented at the SIGGRAPH 2011 conference in Vancouver, on August 8th. Watch the demo after the break.

 

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Lytro Light Field Camera - "Shoot Now, Focus Later"

It’s not the first time I’ve heard of technology that would allow photographers to re-focus a photograph in post production. However, with Lytro’s blog post on Tuesday, this technology is apparently a lot closer to making it to the market place then previously thought. While we have yet to see the camera in action, Lytro claims new possibilities with their light field camera; allowing you to refocus a photograph at any time (after it has been shot). It’s almost as if life has been breathed into the photograph.