Hasta La Gadget!

At IDF 2013 in Beijing, Intel is again making a big push for perceptual computing by way of voice recognition, gesture control, face recognition and more, and to complement its free SDK for these functions, Intel’s been offering developers a Creative Interactive Gesture Camera for $149 on its website since November. For those who missed it last time, this time-of-flight depth camera is very much just a smaller cousin of Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, but with the main difference being this one is designed for a closer proximity and can therefore also pick up the movement of each finger.

We had a go on Creative’s camera with some fun demos — including a quick level of gesture-based Portal 2 made with Intel’s SDK — and found it to be surprisingly sensitive, but we have a feeling that it would’ve been more fun if the camera was paired up with a larger display. Intel said Creative will be commercially launching this kit at some point in the second half of this year, and eventually the same technology may even be embedded in monitors or laptops (remember Toshiba’s laptops with Cell-based gesture control?). Until then, you can entertain yourselves with our new hands-on video after the break.

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Source: Intel

Fujifilm’s Wi-Fi compliant tough digital camera “FinePix XP200″ will be out on April 27. It has 4 tough features; waterproof (up to 15m under water), shockproof (from 2m high), dustproof, and cold temperature resistant (up to -10 degrees Celsius).

It has 1/2.3 CMOS sensor (16.4 effective pixels), optical 5X zoom lens (focal length 28-140mm), optical image stabilizer, high-speed continuous shooting (10 frames/second with full resolution), and a low-reflection high-intensity monitor to make it easy to look at under strong sunshine.

By using 7 kinds of “advanced filter” functions (pop color, toy camera, miniature, part color, high key, soft focus, and cross screen), even camera beginners can take artistic photos.

Price: open price
Color: blue, yellow, black
Imaging element: 1/2.3 CMOS sensor, 16.4 effective pixels
LCD monitor: 3.0 inch TFT color LCD monitor
Size: 116.1mm x 74.4mm x 30.3mm
Weight: 232 g (including a battery and memory card)

This new product “Bikkurisurukurai Kireini Toreru Bosui Video Camera” (Waterproof video camera that makes it possible to take frighteningly-beautiful quality video) manufactured by Thanko consists of 2 units: a video camera and waterproof housing case.  Just like the product name implies, you can take 1920 x 1080p Full HD video with high frame rate (60FPS, 720p).

This appears to be a lower cost alternative to Gopro cameras.

The waterproof housing case allows you to take videos under water, for example, in order for you to film your outdoor activities such as surfing, skiing, scuba diving etc. Several attachment parts to set up the video camera on a bicycle, surfboard, and helmet come with the product.

Also, it’s usable as a drive recorder. By using an attached cigarette socket adapter, the video camera operates simultaneously with the car’s engine. When the engine starts, the video camera starts filming and when the engine stops, the video camera stops filming.

Price: 17,800 yen
Size: 47 x 43 x 44mm
Weight: 75g

Buy this camera here.

Panasonic is releasing new model “DMC-GF6″ in its LUMIX series on April 24. It features a 1.6 million pixel Live MOS sensor and LUMIX’s unique image processing engine “Venus Engine” that improves resolution, so you can take a high-quality photo/movie in a dark area.

NFC and Wi-Fi is built in.

3 models will be out on April 24 with 3 different colors (white, black, red):
DMC-GF6 – Camera only
DMC-GF6X – Camera with electric-powered zoom lens
DMC-GF6W – Camera with standard/tele lens

LCD touch panel has adjustable angle; 180-degree to upper direction and 45-degree to down direction. It takes only 0.5 seconds to be able to shoot after turning the camera on, so you can release the shutter right after you find an object you want to take a picture of. Speed of continuous shooting is 4.2 times per second.

It has an improved version of the “Omakase iA” feature that helps the user choose the best shooting mode depending on the target object and it has added a food recognition function to make pictures of dishes look delicious.

There are several other functions to enable you to enhance photos, including 19 different kinds of filter functions.

Size: 111.2 x 64.8 x 38.4mm
Weight: 323g
Camera: 4/3 inch Live Mos senser, 1.6 million effective pixels
ISO: ISO160-25600

PENTAX RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. is releasing a new compact digital camera with a clean retro design – PENTAX MX-1 – on May 3.

It’s a digital camera with an optical 4X zoom lens featuring a large maximum aperture of F1.8 to F2.5 and 28mm wide-angle coverage (in the 35mm format) and works well in low light situations. A back-illuminated CMOS image sensor is built-in to ensure low-noise characteristics and high-definition images with a sensitivity of ISO 12800 and approximately 12.0 effective mega pixels. Minimum object distance is 1cm away from the lens. It has a 3 inch monitor with adjustable angle.

With “Mode dial” to set 10 different shooting modes, changing settings is fast and easy.

Size: 122.5 x 60 x 51.5 mm
Weight: 391g (including battery and SD card)
Battery: Rechargeable　lithium-ion battery, AC adapter kit (sold separately)