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Sony’s new ‘Intelligent Vision Sensor’ is the world’s first to feature on-chip AI processing

20 May

Sony has shared the details of its new sensor array that it claims is the world’s first to feature artificial intelligence (AI) directly onboard the chipset.

Before diving into the details, it’s worth noting this sensor has been produced with industrial applications in mind, but as tends to be the case with much of Sony’s other sensor technologies, it’s not difficult to imagine seeing these AI-powered technologies in Sony’s smartphone and possibly even mirrorless camera sensors down the road.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the details. The IMX500 is a 12.3MP (4056 × 3040 pixels) backside-illuminated 1/2.3” sensor capable of 4K/60p video capture that features a new stacked design that puts the pixel chip atop the logic chip. The stacked design means the data captured from the pixel chip can immediately be parsed via Sony’s AI processing directly on the logic chip.

Processing in the sensor not only removes the need for external hardware, it also means only the relevant data needs to be output, significantly reducing the amount of data that needs to be communicated to the cloud, reducing bandwidth and increasing speed. Sony says the new sensor can capture and process the image within 3.1 milliseconds when using the MobileNet V1 image analysis model.

IMX500 (left), IMX501 (right).

In addition to faster, real-time object-tracking and processing, this setup also allows the system to export either image data and information or information alone. The ability to export the AI-derived information alone adds an additional layer of security that could be added to scenes where privacy is critical.

Illustration from Sony showing how the data output format can be customized to meet various needs.

Again, Sony specifically mentions retail and industrial equipment use-cases for this new sensor technology, so it’s not likely we’ll be seeing this in consumer camera tech anytime soon.

The IMX500 (bare chip model) is expected to start shipping in April 2020 for 10,000 JPY (~$ 94), while the IMX501 (packaged product model) is expected to start shipping in June 2020 for 20,000 JPY (~$ 188).

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The intelligent Rylo 360° camera is now compatible with Android

02 Mar

The impressive little Rylo 360° camera got a ton of attention when it debuted late last year, but unfortunately, the camera was iOS-only at launch. That all changes today with the release of Rylo for Android.

The Rylo 360° camera comes with two 208° lenses, 4K video resolution, and auto-stabilization technology, but most of its magic comes from software. The corresponding smartphone app lets you edit and “direct” your videos after capture: you can set specific focal points or select objects to be tracked before exporting or sharing the final product, making it an interesting option for any budding 360-degree video maker.

Apart from a new companion Android app, the new Android compatibility simply means a different syncing cable. Otherwise, the camera itself and all of the accessories in the box are the same as the iOS model.

As it is often the case with Android accessories, though, the Rylo doesn’t work with just any Android device. Rylo says the camera is compatible with most Android phones running Android 6.0 or newer, but its list of recommended devices includes mainly recent Samsung and Google high-end smartphones. Also listed are a few devices that are supported but don’t have the processing power to export 4K 360-degree video.

If you are an Android user and want to try Rylo for yourself, it’s now available for $ 500 from the Rylo website. And if you want to see why we called Rylo “a 360° camera done right,” click the big blue button below:

Review: Rylo is a 360° Camera Done Right

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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The Isolite intelligent modifier system lets you change a photo’s lighting after it’s taken

01 Dec

An intriguing new lighting system called Isolite just launched on Kickstarter. The system of hardware accessories for strobes and speedlights comprises what parent company Phototechnica calls the “first ever intelligent light modifier.” What does that actually mean? Basically, with Isolite, photographers are able to modify the lighting in an image after taking it.

Phototechnica stresses that this process involves turning on and off actual lighting in the image, not simply lightening /darkening it or adjusting contrast—this is the real deal, not a post-processing trick.

The Isolite system doesn’t require a 3D render or special camera to enable light changes during post-processing. Raw images are converted by the Isolite converter, which enables users to adjust the image’s lighting before outputting it as a raw DNG file. That final DNG file can then be edited with compatible software like Capture One and Lightroom.

Phototechnica lists the following capabilities on its Kickstarter campaign:

Turn real lights on and off after the capture has been made.
Push, Pull, Paint light after the capture has been made.
Hard and soft light in one capture.
Adjust the exposure and ratio of each light source after the capture has been made.
With selective masking of each light source, difficult or impossible lighting control can be done with ease.
Light can be animated after capture turning still image captures into full motion video.
Using our proprietary tools, online images can be brought to life with light.

Here’s a video intro the further explains what the Isolite system is and how it works:

As far as hardware is concerned, the Isolite system features the Duolite and Beauty Dish Kit. The gear is designed to work with popular Speedlight sizes, most legacy Speedlights, the newest Profoto and Tri/Bowens Mount Strobes, plus there are adapters for using it with Elinchrom products.

Phototechnica is offering the Isolite Dualite through Kickstarter for pledges of at least $ 195 CAD (~$ 150 USD), a Dualite Speedlight Kit for $ 250 CAD (~$ 195 USD), Isolite Studio for $ 500 CAD (~$ 390 USD), and the Isolite Deluxe Studio for $ 1500 CAD (~$ 1,165 USD). The campaign is also offering early bird versions to backers who make pledges starting at $ 95 CAD (~$ 75 USD).

For now the campaign has a long way to go before its funding goal is met, and only 15 days to get there, so we’re not holding our breath on this one. But if the campaign is successful, shipments to some backers are estimated to start in May 2018.

To find out more or put down your own pledge, head over to the Kickstarter campaign.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Robot Fails: 12 Times Supposedly Intelligent Machines Screwed Up

26 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

If you’re down about the oncoming dystopia in which robots take all of our jobs before we’ve structurally reorganized society to support ourselves, enjoy a few moments of smug comfort in these videos of supposedly advanced machines falling, spilling coffee, arguing with each other like old couples and committing suicide in fountains. They’ll give you a brief sense of satisfaction before you read yet another article about how automation is about to destroy your industry.

Security Robot Drowns Itself

Police and security robots equipped with cameras, sensors and alarms (but thankfully not weapons, yet) – what could go wrong? So far, in the case of the 300-pound, cone-shaped Knightscope robots used to patrol shopping centers and parking lots, problems have mostly involved running over the feet of toddlers. But then, as documented by @bilalforooqui on Twitter, one of them let us know he was very depressed by drowning himself in the fountain of a Washington D.C. office building. “We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots,” says Farooqui.

Robots Falling at the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Most DARPA creations, funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, are intended to someday replace humans in dangerous scenarios like wars and disasters, but that doesn’t stop them from being utterly terrifying, especially the ones that look like massive dogs and cheetahs. But if this compilation of robots falling down at the DARPA Robotics Challenge is any indication, it’s going to be a while before we should feel too much concern.

Flying Robot Dive-Bomb

Sure, these robots look and behave just like animals, all right – like angry mother birds eager to attack humans who have wandered too close to their nest. Featured in this video is the Festo SmartBird, an ultralight flying robot that’s usually pretty impressive, developed to help research groups studying animals.

Coffee Robot Makes a Mess

Cafe X in San Francisco aims to be an example of why we no longer need human baristas. Built in partnership with WMF, an automatic coffee company, the Cafe X Coffee Robot is supposed to deliver perfect consistent drinks after you order using a touchscreen or app. But as you can see in this video, things don’t always go according to plan.

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Robot Fails 12 Times Supposedly Intelligent Machines Screwed Up

[ By SA Rogers in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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Vimble S is an intelligent smartphone gimbal with physical camera controls

16 Nov

A Kickstarter project that just launched is aiming to raise funding for production and distribution of the Vimble S smartphone gimbal. The Vimble S is a three-axis motorized image stabilizer that is compatible with a large range of smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone models, the Huawei P9, Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy and other devices with similar dimensions. The gimbal communicates with the phone via a Bluetooth connection and folds down to about 11.2 inches when not in use.

A range of physical controls on the handle allow you to adjust the smartphone camera’s exposure, zoom, focus, and white balance and trigger the shutter. The gimbal’s motor keeps the camera steady, allowing for the recording of smooth video and still image shooting at slow shutter speeds. However, it also gives the Vimble S a number of intelligent functions, which are controlled via a dedicated app. Those include the ability to track faces, allowing for video-selfies, shoot panorama images with automated panning and record time-lapses.

The engineers behind the project say the Vimble S has a battery life of 8 hours and a very quiet motor. The handle is designed to also function as a monopod. With 29 days to go currently, the campaign is a good way to reaching its funding goal. If the feature set sounds like what you have been waiting for, you can secure a Vimble S by pledging $ 179 or more on the Vimble S Kickstarter page. Shipping is planned for January 2017.

Press Release:

Vimble S, the gimbal stabilizer for smartphones, allows everyone to capture professional-quality video

Never capture shaky video again, available on Kickstarter from US$ 179

November 15, 2016 (Hong Kong) – Today Vimble S, a 3-axis gimbal stabilizer specifically engineered for smartphones, launches on Kickstarter. The intelligent monopod ensures, no matter what, that your smartphone stays stable while filming, producing silky smooth video and sharp photos. It’s also accompanied by a feature-packed app, ViCam, allowing users to create stunning time-lapses, track selected faces for perfect selfies and snap effortless 180° panoramic vistas.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/368303780/653404756?token=44cc14d5

Aiming to provide everyone with a professional yet affordable way to shoot high-quality video and images, Vimble S has been expertly designed to produce fantastic content in every situation.

Vimble S perfectly balances smartphones to cancel out unwanted movement in a 3-axis space, counteracting any jarring wobbles or shakes. Its motors are silent too, so not to disturb the footage audio. The handle embraces ergonomic design, with the integrated control panel easily accessible with just one hand, allowing users to easily operate every aspect of the gimbal’s movement and camera settings.

Vimble S also comes with a companion app, ViCam, specifically developed to control each of the smart shooting features available. Create beautiful montages of passing time with a few simple clicks. Automatically centre on your subject with ViCam’s face tracking tool, recording their every movement even if they move out of the camera’s range. Capture the entire scene with the spectacular 180° panoramic mode, smoothly rotating while staying completely level. Users can edit and share photos directly from the app, while keen developers can tinker with the provided SDK to customise features and unlock hidden capabilities. ViCam will be available for iOS and Android.

Rian Cheng, Founder and CEO at DelTron Technology, comments: “Our dream is to bring professional videography into everybody’s daily lives. Sharing our experiences of the world through pictures and video is now second nature, with over 1.8 billion digital images uploaded everyday. Whether posting on Instagram, Facebook or another social channel, we love to share what we see. Vimble S puts the power in your hand to create beautiful visual memories with complete ease.”

Manufactured using high-grade materials, Vimble S is a sturdy and reliable travel companion. The premium device is prepared for rigorous use that any practical camera stabilizer has to go through. Small enough to be tucked away in your bag, it also has a long-lasting battery life of up to 8 hours, besting their closest competitors. Whether filming a trekking tour through a national park, catching that awesome skateboard trick, or gaining self-shooting experience as a videographer, Vimble S allows you to take on the director role with everything you create. The gimbal also opens up a wide range of angles including landscape, portrait and underslung to add variety to your shooting style.

“This isn’t just some fancy selfie stick, the technology we’ve implemented into the Vimble S sets your photo and video content apart from the mundane. Vloggers, extreme sports enthusiasts, travellers or anybody else can use features such as our intelligent face tracking to breathe new life to their videos. It does, of course, take incredible selfies too.” adds Peter Zeng, Co-Founder and CTO at DelTron Technology.

Vimble S is available to back on Kickstarter now from US$ 179 and will ship to backers worldwide in January 2017 – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/368303780/653404756?token=44cc14d5

Vimble S Tech Specs:

Gimbal

Angular vibration range : ±0.03°
Max Controllable speed: 200°/s
Axis freedom:

Tilt: 320°, Roll: 320°, Pan: 360° – Slip ring design for limitless rotation

Mount

Supports phones of various sizes – the iPhone series, Huawei P9 and P9 plus, Samsung Galaxy S7/edge, and other smartphones with similar dimensions
Standard quarter inch nut on bottom, thus Vimble can be mounted on tripod

Battery

Battery life: 8 hour maximum; 6 hour under heavy usage condition. also varies by temperature
Battery capacity: 3000mAh
Charging: Micro USB port

Wireless

Model: Bluetooth 4.0

Weight & dimensions

486g, including built-in battery
285mm x 113mm x 60mm

ViCam app

Automatic panorama
Face tracking
Night photo enhancement
Exposure/ Focus/ White Balance and Zoom can be easily adjusted by the control panel
Shooting parameter adjustable. Up to 4k/ 30fps or 720p/ 240fps
Upgrade firmware wirelessly
Motion time-lapse
Remote control of rotation of Vimble S

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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EyeEm launches The Roll for iOS, an intelligent take on your Camera Roll

13 May

If you’re an iPhone owner, you know one thing about the beloved Camera Roll: it can get messy. While it seeks to bring some order to the chaos with built-in dating and geotagging, it doesn’t help high-volume shooters zero in on specific content or locate their best shots from multitudes of thumbnails.

EyeEm, the global community and photography marketplace, is here to help with today’s release of The Roll, an app that uses a proprietary image recognition algorithm to classify, tag, keyword and select your best photos. In addition to its organizational function, the app also displays metadata such as aperture, ISO, geolocation and more.

When launched, The Roll examines each of your photos for content and then groups similar shots together, whether or not they were taken on the same day or in the same place (and ignoring all of those screenshots living on your phone). Then, it classifies and tags photos under broad searchable categories like Pets, Water, Fun, Cute, or a predominant color or location, placing the best shot on top. The same photos or groups can appear under different headings. Within each broad classification are smaller subgroups of similar photos of varying quality that you can choose to keep or delete in order to save room on your device or to immediately share with others.

The app’s keywording and scoring functionality are based on EyeEm Vision, the company’s server-based computer vision tech. Powered by deep learning technology, photos are assigned an Aesthetic Score from 1 to 100 percent that seeks to replicate how professional photographers and curators judge a composition.

Each photo also features a multitude of keywords, which are derived from a shot’s content and an artificial intelligence algorithm’s judgment of the photo’s mood and emotion. The algorithm can identify thousands of concepts to help you search for photos in your catalog. EyeEm assures privacy to all users and promises that all synced photos are deleted after scoring and keywording.

The app contains all the information you need to understand how it works, though there is no further analysis on why one cat picture may score 10 points more or less than another taken at the same time or place — though scrolling through each selection often makes the rational for the score more obvious. I did not necessarily agree with all of The Roll’s judgments about my images, of course, but it provides a starting point if a user is in a quandary about what to immediately share or delete.

The Roll is not the first to come up with automatic sorting and keywording: Google Photos and Flickr’s Magic View already do that. The Roll also did not move at lightning speed through my relatively small collection, which is typically filled with screenshots. Its real value is having a reliable analysis of resident images and an assist in deciding what is immediately sharable.

The Roll is offered free of charge and while it only runs on iOS 9 or later for now, an Android version is in the works.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Intelligent Design? 14 Strikingly Modern Places of Worship

25 Feb

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

modern church ribbon 3

Dramatic and sculptural, monolithic as a stone monument or light as a bridal veil, these churches, chapels and meditation rooms eschew conventional architectural typologies for places of worship, prioritizing the way the structures make visitors feel while they’re inside. Some emphasize a connection to nature, while others encourage internal reflection or symbolize the act of marriage with unexpected visual metaphors.

Minimalist Chapel

modern minimalist chapel 2

modern minimalist chapel 3

modern minimalist chapel 4

Reinterpreting the stark, minimalist works of sculptor Richard Serra in architectural form, this blade-like chapel rises from the flat grasslands of Serbia, offering a space for meditation. Stockholm-based architect Predrag Vujanovic creates a strong perpendicular line contrasting the landscape with just two main elements: the folded steel of the roof, and the cortex steel sheets making up the ramp.

Ribbon Chapel

modern church ribbon 2

modern church ribbon 4

modern church ribbon 5

Japan’s most striking wedding chapel consists of two separate stairways that spiral up to the sky, joining into an observation platform looking out onto the sea at the pinnacle. The space beneath is glassed in to create an airy interior fitting up to 80 guests. From the center of the nave, one can look straight up into the oculus skylight framed by the spiral of the ramp.

Kamppi Chapel of Silence

modern kamppi chapel 2

modern kamppi chapel 3

Solid wood and windowless, this egg-shaped chapel on the southern side of busy Narinkka Square in Helsinki, Finland offers a quiet place of refuge. CNC-cut, glue-laminated sections of timber create the curving walls of the striking space, leading the eye upward to the void between the perimeter and the roof, where sunlight streams in.

St. Voile Chapel

modern st voile 2

modern st voile 3

modern st voile 4

A series of white pipes climb the walls of the St. Voile Chapel by Kasahara Design Work, interweaving in flowing organic patterns as a visual metaphor for marriage. Located on the banks of Niigata’s Shinano River, the chapel is largely defined by the play of daylight on these interior lines, which streams in through a pair of skylights at the pinnacle of the steep and narrow roof.

Gratitude Open Chapel

modern open chapel 2

modern open chapel 4

Set against the landscape of Lagunillas, Mexico like a series of four monumental stones, the simple white elements making up ‘Gratitude Open Chapel’ by Tatiana Bilbao + Dellekamp Arquitectos don’t actually form an interior space at all, but rather an outdoor gathering place for pilgrims making the holy ‘Ruta del Peregrino’ route.

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Intelligent Design 14 Strikingly Modern Places Of Worship

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Monument is an intelligent personal photo storage device

20 Feb

Cloud photo storage services are abundant, but not all photographers are willing to pay the monthly fees associated with large storage amounts. Monument, a project currently seeking crowdfunding, aims to bring the organization and syncing features found in cloud services like Google Photos to a photography-centric storage device that you keep in your own home. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Highly Intelligent ‘About Me’ Page Tips for Photographers to Build Their Brand

09 Jun

Crafting a compelling bio and writing the perfect pitch are quite challenging. Working in a service industry requires its own rules. Nobody wants to hire a person he doesn’t know, doesn’t trust or doesn’t like. That’s why talking about yourself is extremely important while creating your own brand. If you check your Google Analytics, you’d see that the ‘About Me’ Continue Reading

The post Highly Intelligent ‘About Me’ Page Tips for Photographers to Build Their Brand appeared first on Photodoto.

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Street Smart: Intelligent Motion-Activated Outdoor Lighting

05 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

motion activated urban lights

While we are all familiar with motion-detection technology in controlled indoor environments, the technology problem is much more complex when you add stray animals, wind-blown trees, weather-strewn debris and other dynamic variables into the mix.

motion outdoor light sensors

This high-tech solution designed and developed by Tvilight involves eight sensors and includes recognition software that can distinguish people and cars from other environmental factors that would trigger normal detectors.

Recognition information is relayed between the various independent light posts to account for the trajectory and velocity of pedestrians and automobiles, allowing both reaction and anticipation. Fine-tuned control options allow off-hours intersections to have the lights turned down by 30%, and mostly-empty areas like parking lots to be dimmed up to 70%.

motion illumination public space

motion sensing street lamps

The statistics are staggering – cities, states and countries could save up to 50% on maintenance costs and 80% on energy by illuminating streets on an as-needed basis rather than continuously. In Europe, 40% of government energy spending is on street lighting, so cutting down the cost and pollution of lights can have an incredible impact.

motion pedestrian street experience

Engineer and entrepreneur Chintan Shah’s company developed this dynamic system such that it can be applied to street lamps of all kinds, both new and old, in various places – sensors can be added to existing lights with traditional or LED bulbs. Already active in Holland and Ireland, Tvilight is looking to expand into the German, Canada and the United States.