April 2012

April 30, 2012
The Gesture Interface: Another Asian Smartphone Manufacturer Thinks It Makes Sense

Back in early November, I mentioned that South Korean cellphone manufacturer Pantech had begun augmenting some of its products with gesture interface capabilities, courtesy of the Embedded Vision Alliance's newest member, eyeSight Mobile Technologies.

April 30, 2012
The Webcam: Key To Apple's 3-D Display Plans?

A couple of weeks ago, a flurry of posts hit the blogosphere discussing Apple's reputed plans for a glasses-free autostereoscopic 3-D display. See, for example:

April 26, 2012
eyeSight: The Embedded Vision Alliance's Latest Member Takes Flight

Back in early March, I told you about the Embedded Vision Alliance's then-latest member, CogniMem Technologies. Less than two months later, I'm happy to share with you the news that the EVA has expanded yet again, to include Israel-based eyeSight Mobile Technologies.

April 25, 2012
Analog Devices' Latest Blackfin Proliferations Get Embedded Vision Religion

As readers of the last two Embedded Vision Insights newsletters already know, Analog Devices took advantage of the late-March Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley and quarterly Embedded Vision Alliance Summit to unveil the latest entries in the high-performance segment of its multi-vector Blackfin SoC product line (Figure 1).

April 24, 2012
Computer Vision: The Free Online Class Has Begun

Back in late February, I told you that Jitendra Malik, Arthur J. Chick Professor of EECS at the University of California at Berkeley, was planning on shortly beginning a free online course on computer vision. Well, that time is now. Here is the content of an email we received yesterday:

April 13, 2012
Identity, Age And Emotion: Facial Recognition Garners Abundant Promotion

Facial recognition software developer Face.com has been in the news quite a lot in recent months. Back in late January, for example, the company launched a free iOS-based app called KLIK which "uses face recognition to let you quickly tag your friends in real-time.

April 13, 2012
Samsung's Message To The Worried: Don't Be So Paranoid

Remember my writeup of a few weeks ago, wherein I noted that the Terms of Service in Samsung's new TVs (containing image sensors, microphones, and networking transceivers) included a clause allowing third-party apps to make use of

April 10, 2012
Sit Up Straight! A Webcam Turns Your Computer Display Into A Parental Surrogate

Poor posture is a topic that my poor mother constantly harped on me about as a child. And considering how poorly I'm sitting as I type these words, her efforts were largely for naught. Nonetheless, her spirit lives on in Philips' 24-inch ErgoSensor Monitor, which leverages a built-in front-facing image sensor and software developed by DigitalOptics Corporation in order to implement multiple functions beyond conventional videoconferencing purposes:

April 9, 2012
The Analog Joystick: An Image Sensor-Plus-Accessory Combo Creates One That's Slick

If you're not into videoconferencing but you're into gaming, researchers have come up with a clever alternative use for your smartphone's front-mounted camera. A rubberized accessory device mounted ahead of it, containing a patterned grid and able to let in sufficient light even with your finger on top of it, transforms the image sensor into a three-axis analog joystick. Not only is it more intuitive than a capacitive touch sensor-created virtual joystick alternative, it also frees up touchscreen (and more general display) real estate for other purposes.

April 4, 2012
Google's Project Glass(es): A Further Loss Of Privacy With A Touch Of Class

Remember Google's augmented reality glasses, the rumors of which I mentioned back in late February? Well, they're real, as it turns out, at least in prototype form.