Hasta La Gadget!

Ready for Kinect-like depth sensing magic in your pocket? It might be on the way, according to Eric Fossum, the man behind the CMOS sensor. During an Engineering lecture at Yale, Fossum let it slip that he was working on a new time-of-flight range sensor with Samsung, and said “we’re trying to catch up to a lot of people.” Pulling up a slide, Fossom described a 2-megapixel color sensor with a time-of-flight sensor inserted inside. “This doesn’t even get announced until February,” he said. Mentioning Sammy’s place in the 3D TV game, Fossum said that there wasn’t enough 3D content available to make 3D sets viable, “We have to enable people to be able to make 3D content before we can sell a lot of 3D TVs.” Between his lecture slides and befuddling words, Fossum suggested that cell phones equipped with 3D color image sensors could fill this content gap, calling it a “vision.” Hold tight to that word, though — Fossum wasn’t exactly crystal clear on what Sammy’s going to do with this technology, or what it’s going to announce in February. What do we know for sure? We need more 3D programming. Well, that and Samsung is going to announce something next year. Hit the break to hear the man in his own words. You can even pretend you’re a Yale student, we won’t judge.

Update: Fossum dropped by to give us a statement. “The RGBZ sensor represents the state of the art in research and development,” he says, “Technical information about this R&D advancement will be reported in February.”

[Thanks, Salem]

Continue reading Eric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages

Eric Fossum lectures Yale students on next-gen range sensors, 3D content shortages originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Vuzix Wrap 1200VR video eyewear does 3D with head-tracking for $600, now available

Vuzix Wrap 1200VR video eyewear does 3D with head-tracking for $600, now available originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just hours before the 2011 NFL season kicks off, the ESPN and the NFL announced a new eight year extension for Monday Night Football that runs from 2014 to 2021 and most notably to us, includes a provision for 3D broadcast rights. The new deal covers items from new studio programming (beginning this season) to availability of games on the WatchESPN mobile app to the Pro Bowl we still won’t watch. According to the LA Times, the pricetag for ESPN — before it’s passed on to the cable / satellite company and eventually ends up on your bill in a rate increase — is around $1.9 billion per season, up from $1.1 billion previously. While this should help quell ideas that ESPN 3D might be axed after its removal from U-verse, the bad news is it could still be a ways off, as we’re told 3D broadcasts are expected when the extension takes effect in 2014. Sadly, 3D early adopters are probably used to waiting, with unbundled retail availability of Avatar still pending for 2012, this is just one more item to add to your calendar.

Continue reading ESPN’s new Monday Night Football deal includes 3D broadcasts, WatchESPN app

ESPN’s new Monday Night Football deal includes 3D broadcasts, WatchESPN app originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dr. Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate Technologies separates the best smartphone, tablet, HDTV, and multimedia displays from the worst with his Display Technology Shoot-Out series. And his newly crowned 3DTV champion might just give you some major 3D buyer’s remorse: More »

Samsung took IFA by storm yesterday with its now-legendary “S Pen” (that Galaxy Note comes bundled), so it’s only fair that LG gets its chance in the spotlight with a pen of its own. The company’s Pentouch comes with a plasma TV in tow, and lets you do super-slick stuff to your productivity suite — you can mark up Word docs, handwrite URLs in the browser, highlight elements in your PowerPoint presentations, or even flick one of those little red balls of fluff in Angry Birds. $2,199 will net you a 3D-enabled 60-inch LG PZ850 with Pentouch TV — a non-3D model is available for $1,699, and there’s a 50-inch version as well, priced at a mere $1,099.

You’ll need to collect quite a few ingredients before you can get cookin’ here, including the TV, the pair of included pens, and a computer to pump content to your TV. If you’re planning to use the display with kids, a printer might be a good idea as well, so your little ones will have a platform to preserve all those on-screen sketched masterpieces (this thing puts coloring books to shame). Everything seemed to work as described (note: this isn’t a touchscreen, so you’ll need to use the pen), though the software did hiccup once while attempting to hand-write the Engadget URL. We see this being more of a hit for enterprise use, since there isn’t really any need to mark up photos or tap the screen to launch apps in your living room. Still thinking about taking the plunge? Jump past the break for a video walkthrough (yes, and yet another clip of Angry Birds).

Continue reading LG PZ850 Pentouch Plasma TV hands-on (video)

LG PZ850 Pentouch Plasma TV hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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