David Brady and a team of researchers at Duke University have developed a gigapixel camera that records more than 30 times the data captured by conventional cameras. The AWARE2 camera project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
“The new camera is not the first to generate images with more than a billion pixels (or gigapixel resolution),” notes MIT’s Technology Review. “But it is the first with the potential to be scaled down to portable dimensions.”
The AWARE2 prototype has 98 micro-cameras, each with 10-megapixel resolution, all positioned behind a shared lens. Eight graphical processing units work in tandem to correct distortions, while multiple cameras behind a shared lens make it possible to process different portions of the image separately.
Hardware required for the AWARE2 is expected to shrink as computer processing power improves.
“Imagine trying to spot an individual pixel in an image displayed across 1,000 high-definition TV screens. That’s the kind of resolution a new kind of ‘compact’ gigapixel camera is capable of producing,” notes the article.
Brady says gigapixel cameras could revolutionize digital photography, image surveillance and video broadcasting. His team hopes to offer a version of the camera by the end of next year for $100,000.
Nintendo has announced the August 19th availability of the new $200 3DS XL, a larger version of its portable console with improved battery life.
“Unlike the Nintendo DS Lite, which released just over a year and a half after the original DS, the 3DS XL does not make necessary improvements to the look and ergonomics of the 3DS,” reports Digital Trends. “The Lite made the DS more compact but dramatically improved its screens and comfort. The 3DS XL increases the size of the 3DS’ screens by 90 percent, with a 4.88-inch top screen and a 4.18-inch bottom screen.”
The new size (close to that of the iPad when the clamshell is unfolded) may make the 3DS a more usable device for some gamers.
The battery life has been improved, offering 30 minutes more play time than the original. Additionally, the 2GB SD card of the original DS has been replaced with a 4GB card.
However, Digital Trends suggests these are the only improvements. “The screens are bigger but the resolution is not improved. The 3DS XL also fails to add the most necessary hardware improvements like a second analog slide pad for improved control of the three-dimensional games,” explains the post.
Mashable takes a look at how augmented reality — although still in its early stages of deployment — is already beginning to impact retail businesses and the consumer shopping experience.
“Augmented reality technology typically overlays the virtual world on top of the real-world environment through a device, such as a mobile phone or a tablet,” explains the article. “But certain companies are redefining the bounds of virtual reality experiences by home-growing their own unique AR technologies and platforms.”
For example, the GoldRun AR platform is available in app form for iOS and Android devices. It can customize AR-based experiences to be shared via Facebook and Twitter.
“GoldRun specializes in interactive experiences accessible directly on the app platform, which hosts various campaigns at one time,” notes Mashable. “For example, clothing retailer H&M can hold a virtual photo-based scavenger hunt, while New York Giants fans can virtually try on the Super Bowl XLVI championship ring and share photos online.”
“We’re creating a platform where we can use augmented reality to create a one-stop shop, based on the concept of using virtual brands to create geo-specific or geo-targeted virtual photo opportunities,” explains Shailesh Rao, co-founder of GoldRun.
Holition is a marketing firm and AR laboratory that has created an interactive digital platform that is complex on the back end, but seamless for consumers who want to try on virtual goods via a Web cam and Internet connection.
“We are pursuing active ways in which the other senses can be integrated into augmented spaces, whether that be touch or sound,” says Holition brand director Lynne Murray. “A lot of our brands say, ‘About 50 percent of our product is ensuring customers can feel the weight of it.’ So, we’re looking at how to include haptic interfaces to our experiences to allow us to communicate multiple sensory experiences.”
ETCentric reported from January’s CES about companies such as Lego developing AR kiosks. Retailers are already letting customers try on clothing and jewelry virtually. Macy’s in Culver City, California recently conducted a demonstration of full body scans of customers in the Fox Hills Mall courtyard.
Paul Adams — former lead researcher of social Web and mobile applications at Google — is currently a researcher at Facebook where he focuses “on researching and designing better ways for businesses and people to communicate and interact,” according to his website.
Marketing firm Simply Zesty has posted a compelling video featuring a presentation by Adams in which he discusses the history of social media and why he firmly believes Facebook has a strong future.
“He is one of the best thinkers when it comes to social and this video that Facebook has just shared shows his thoughts on how advertising works on Facebook and why the world will continue to become more social,” explains Simply Zesty.
“One of the biggest takeaways from the video are his three huge trends to watch: 1) The Web is being rebuilt around people, 2) The amount of information you can access is increasing exponentially and 3) All this information will be available everywhere,” suggests the post. “Those three points perfectly describe where social is at right now. Unlike most sales videos that all the big networks release, this is actually massively useful at showing where the world is headed.”
ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld adds: “This 20 minute video articulates part of the foundation of the ETC’s “Big Data”/Metadata project. He says that the future is about our friends, our interests, and our friends’ interests.”
The U.S. State Department is proposing to increase its efforts in monitoring social media sites by asking software developers to create multilingual tools that can perform “deep analysis of topics, conversations, networks, and influencers of the global social Web.”
The government believes that close inspection of social sites will “more effectively engage with foreign populations and track conversations in the wider world.”
Related efforts have already been in the works. For example, the State Department recently launched the trial run of a social media game that offers public users cash rewards for identifying criminals.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Social Networking/Media Capability program monitors online activity to gather awareness of individuals’ behavior.
“In addition, the FBI is working to persuade Facebook, Google and other Internet companies to make their sites friendly to wiretapping,” reports Mobiledia. “Bureau agents argue the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, originally passed to permit phone tapping, should extend to social media sites as well.”
The article notes that it seems ironic these initiatives come from the same administration that recently criticized Syria for shutting down social media sites in an attempt to quiet dissidents.
“This prevents people from speaking their minds,” said Ginger McCall of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It quells dissent.”
Researchers from the Object-Based Media Group at MIT’s Media Lab have developed an alternative to installing over-sized TVs in order to create a more immersive viewing experience in the living room.
The cost effective approach uses additional side and ceiling screens that are positioned to target a viewer’s peripheral vision.
“And instead of simply stretching the video image to completely fill the area the viewer can see, the Infinity-By-Nine system, developed by Daniel Novy and V. Michael Bove Jr., uses custom software that generates and renders a real-time extension of the image on either side of the TV,” reports Gizmodo.
“Because the viewer’s peripheral vision is never in focus, the extensions being generated only have to be crude blobs and blurry shapes to sell the effect,” adds the post. “Which also means the Infinity-By-Nine system can run on consumer-ready hardware, instead of requiring a room full of state-of-the-art supercomputers.”
Initial testing of the multi-screen system has shown that viewers are increasingly drawn into the story and universe. “And it has even been found to create the illusion of feeling other sensations, like heat when an on-screen explosion feels like it’s completely surrounding the viewer,” notes Gizmodo.
The post includes a video introduction to the Infinity-By-Nine system.
As CE devices continue to integrate new features, developers want to make the complexity visible. “But all the features in the world don’t mean a thing if you can’t present them in a welcoming, intuitive way,” argues Sam Grobart in The New York Times.
Grobart cites Samsung’s Smart TVs as an example of a product line with impressive functionality, but often frustrating design. The TVs essentially mimic smartphone designs with floating applications over a background, but while smartphone users can click to launch applications, the approach does not work as well on a television as it creates what Grobart describes as “a new source of confusion right on my screen.”
Grobart suggests part of the problem may stem from a need to boast impressive functionality. “I can see how this layout came to be,” he writes. “First, a TV like this can do a lot of things, so wouldn’t you want everyone to know all the great things it did? You don’t want to hide your capabilities, so you give many of them pride of place on that opening screen.”
Whereas smartphones thrive using touch-based systems, “an interface that is based on touch and proximity may not play as well on a TV. Seeing all these options in front of me on a 60-inch screen was almost overwhelming, not simplifying,” he explains.
Grobart closes with some advice for manufacturers: “If you are going to cram a device full of features, figure out a way to organize things so your users don’t pass out from frustration. The interface is every bit as important as the features. Maybe even more important, actually.”
According to the report “Choosing Content: Viewing Video” by Parks Associates, “17 percent of premium cable channel customers and 16 percent of video-on-demand pay-per-view customers would consider using an online subscription service such as Netflix Watch Instantly instead of their current viewing choice,” reports Digital Trends.
Netflix receives higher customer satisfaction ratings because it has more material available and boasts a lower price point.
“Consumers can pay for a month of Netflix for about the same amount as for two pay-TV VOD movies. Parks Associates research shows consumers know the quality of the [subscription] service is not comparable to pay-TV quality, but the cost-benefit comparison is enough to affect their purchase decisions,” notes Brett Sappington, director of research for Parks Associates.
In a related Forbes article, Mark Rogowsky argues that while cable purchases used to be the norm when moving into a home or apartment, today’s younger generations skirt the system using Internet television solutions and illegal websites.
“Given that excess disposable income doesn’t appear headed for the wallets of twentysomethings in the U.S. anytime soon (and even if it were, it’s not clear they’d rush to sign up for cable),” writes Rogowsky, “there’s a real possibility that over time, multichannel penetration in the U.S. will drop off meaningfully from the current 90-plus-percent level as the current customers die and the prospective new customers don’t automatically opt in.”
Digital Trends suggests that cord-cutting may soon become less of a concern for television companies than consumers who never establish cords to begin with: “It’s not that people will give up their television for the Internet, but if the Internet can convince people who’ve never really had a cable subscription before that they don’t even need one… Well, that could be a real problem.”
Amazon Studios has announced the first four series projects selected for its development slate — three comedies and one children’s show.
“They become the first submitted scripts to be selected for the Amazon Studios Series Development Slate, extending their option on the projects and awarding their creators $10,000 in options as a result of their intention to turn them into a TV series that will be distributed through the company’s digital video streaming service, Amazon Instant Video,” reports The Next Web.
The four projects include the animated comedies “The 100 Deaths of Mort Grimley” and “Magic Monkey Billionaire,” the mockumentary “Doomsday” and a children’s project called “Buck Plaidsheep.”
Clive Barker is reportedly working on a rewrite of “Zombies vs. Gladiators,” one of 16 film projects currently being developed for Amazon Studios since the division’s launch nearly two years ago. Some 9,000 movie scripts and 1,000 series pilots have been submitted since the launch.
“In practice, it means that Amazon Studios is becoming an additional, crowdsourced content source for Amazon, while the company is increasingly venturing into original programming,” adds The Next Web.
If the programs make it to production, they will be available for streaming on Amazon Instant Video or possibly licensed to Warner Bros. and other TV companies.
Measurement firm comScore recently released its “State of the U.S. Internet” report that measures trends in social networking, mobile, online advertising and e-commerce.
According to the study, “unique visits to social networking sites have increased by 6 percent year-over-year,” reports TechCrunch. “The company also re-confirmed that Pinterest remains the fastest-growing social network as of Q1 2012, and its users rival only that of LinkedIn in terms of buying power.”
Distribution of the worldwide Internet audience — 41 percent Asia Pacific, 26.6 percent Europe, 14.6 percent North America, 8.9 percent Latin America and 8.8 percent Middle East-Africa. (The report notes that in 1996, two-thirds of the Internet population was in the U.S.)
Social networking growth — Pinterest +4377 percent, Tumblr +168 percent, LinkedIn +67 percent, Twitter +58 percent and Facebook +4 percent.
In March of this year, 62.9 percent of phone purchases were smartphones. The number of mobile users is projected to pass the number of desktop users by 2014.
Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Target and Netflix were among the top retail sites in Q1 2012, with Amazon showing an impressive 30 percent growth in its number of unique visitors year-over-year.
“Online shopping has been impacting brick-and-mortar sales, too, thanks to what comScore dubs ‘showrooming,’ which you know as the process of using offline retail stores to look at products up close, then buying online,” explains the post. “Thirty five percent of people told comScore they had ‘showroomed,’ but chose to buy online for better prices.”
While comScore predicts U.S. online ad spending will grow 18 percent in 2012, monetization remains a challenge.
Former Microsoft executive Fritz Lanman has launched Livestar, a an iOS app intended to supply “trusted” recommendations for restaurants, movies and music.
While the app currently only offers three categories of recommendations, Lanman hopes to expand to “wine, clothing, books, bars, hotels, and shows,” reports TechCrunch.
“We can just keep turning on more and more categories, just like Amazon did, using the same infrastructure/architecture,” explains Lanman.
Users access Livestar through their Facebook login and can access their friends’ reviews. Livestar also allows users to refine searches using keywords to better define categories.
“Livestar pre-computes restaurants your friends are likely to recommend, simplifying the process even further,” notes the post. “If a friend’s recommendation isn’t pre-populated, Livestar lets them enter it in.”
Online ticket selling company Eventbrite continues to set itself apart as the “go-to platform” for e-ticket sales. “And it’s announcing a major milestone to prove it today: It’s sold more than $1 billion tickets in total,” reports TechCrunch.
Between January 2009 and December 2010, the site grew from $100 million in sales to $400 million. But it only took 18 months for Eventbrite to more than double its sales in order to hit that $1 billion mark.
“Part of its revenue growth comes from Eventbrite leveraging social networks like Twitter and Facebook. In its announcement, Eventbrite noted that on average, organizers receive an additional $2.52 in ticket sales whenever a user shares an event on Facebook,” according to TechCrunch.
Another part of its growth is the push toward mobile platforms, including the launch of an iPad app and credit card reader to allow for easy mobile payments.
Twitter will roll out its advertising products including promoted tweets, promoted trends and promoted accounts to 50 countries by the end of the year. The launch will begin in Latin America and Western Europe.
“The expansion marks the next stage for the six-year-old tech start-up’s development, with Twitter seeking to turn its 140 million users into revenue,” explains The Hollywood Reporter.
“Asked about the next stage of development for the company, founder Jack Dorsey left the door open for a flotation, or potentially a sale to a technology giant such as Google,” adds the article.
Twitter claims that, unlike Facebook, it is not struggling with the rise of mobile usage by its base, saying its mobile ads are performing well.
“We were born mobile,” said Adam Bain, director of revenue for Twitter. “Tweets are like water, they work whatever you put them through.”
The advertising model for Video On Demand will soon change. Some cable operators, including Comcast, allow users to fast-forward through commercials while viewing On Demand content, but operators plan to change this within the next few months in an attempt to better monetize the service.
“We have 400 million monthly VoD views on Comcast. I’d love to have a dollar for every view,” explains Chip Meehan, Comcast Spotlight’s West regional VP of integrated media sales.
Meehan also projects a “tenfold” increase in ad impressions for Comcast’s VoD content within the next year.
VoD will change by offering dynamically inserted ads. Whereas current VoD offerings often show the same advertisement during every commercial break, the new ads will make the experience “more like linear TV,” according to Scott Criley, the director of new media at Harris’s Broadcast Communications division.
“That’s something that’ll appeal to viewers, advertisers and content providers, but it’s not enough to ensure the uptick in ad revenue for Comcast; that’s why they’ve also disabled the ‘trick-play’ (fast-forward) capability for a lot of their VoD content,” reports Digital Trends.
Verizon announced it will expand its 4G LTE network to 46 new markets and will introduce expanded coverage to 22 existing markets this week.
The move will push Verizon’s 4G coverage to 304 markets. The company hopes to cover 400 markets by the end of the year.
“Verizon isn’t the most popular carrier right now, as it looks to begin killing off grandfathered unlimited data plans in favor of capped plans and family share plans starting June 28,” reports CNET.
“The carrier, however, has often touted itself as the premium player in the market because of the perceived superiority of the quality of its network,” notes the post. “Verizon was the first major carrier to move to LTE, something the other carriers have all committed to or are in the process of rolling out.”
Currently, AT&T covers only 39 LTE markets. Sprint is in the process of covering its first six and T-Mobile USA plans to begin 4G coverage by next year.
AT&T has wider 4G coverage on its HSPA+ networks, although the technology has slower data speeds than LTE.
David Brady and a team of researchers at Duke University have developed a gigapixel camera that records more than 30 times the data captured by conventional cameras. The AWARE2 camera project is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
