Hasta La Gadget!

Meet “Black Desi.” He and his friend “White Wanda” made a video titled “HP computers are racist,” which has been a viral hit in recent weeks. (See above.) In an attempt to prove their claim, Desi demonstrated that an HP MediaSmart computer’s facial-tracking software could not follow the movements of his face, but it could do so just fine for his white friend Wanda.

“As soon as White Wanda appears, the camera moves,” Desi says in the video. “Black Desi gets in there — nope! No face recognition anymore, buddy.”

“I’m going on the record and I’m saying it,” he continues. “Hewlett-Packard computers are racist.”

The video, which has attracted about 400,000 views as of this writing, is categorized as a humor clip. But HP has said it’s taking the potential issue seriously.

“HP has been informed of a potential issue with the facial-tracking software included on some of its systems, which appears to occur when insufficient foreground lighting is available,” an HP spokesman said in an e-mail. “We take this seriously and are looking into it with our partners.”

The most entertaining part? The YouTube page proudly displays “Uploaded Using HP MediaSmart.” Priceless.

Via Bloomberg

See Also:

• HP MediaSmart Server
• HP MediaSmart Server EX475

Kudos where it’s due: not many design houses use tanks in their illustrations of a new road safety concept. Transparentius, as with most good ideas, is remarkably simple — you jack a camera onto the front of a truck, or lorry as they’re known in some places, and then project that image onto the back of your hulking transporter. The effect of this is to render the truck figuratively transparent for the driver behind, who is enriched with a lot more information about what lies on the road ahead. No word on how the rear projection is achieved or how sunlight glare is overcome, but knowing Art Lebedev, you can bet both challenges are solved in the most unaffordable fashion possible. Anyhow, now that you’ve got the idea, we’re throwing this one over to you dear mod-loving friends — can you build this without remortgaging the house?

[Thanks, Dennis]

Art Lebedev’s Transparentius eliminates opacity, improves road safety originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good old December, the busiest time of the year for elves, reindeer, jolly old fat guys… and lawyers, apparently. Joining the rush to make momentous decisions before Santa arrives, the International Trade Commission has made a preliminary ruling in favor of Kodak in its dispute over digital camera patents with Samsung. Though the original lawsuit included LG, an out of court settlement has left only Sammy in the firing line, and this early decision has affirmed that two of Kodak’s patents were infringed in the production of its cameraphones. It’s still necessary for the full commission to look at and approve the judgment, but considering Samsung’s vast range of camera-equipped phones, we’d throw legal caution to the wind and start bombarding the ITC with “holiday cheer” pronto.

Kodak wins preliminary ruling in patent squabble with Samsung originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first- and second-generation iPhones are now capable of video recording, and you won’t even need to do any hacking.

Last week, Wired.com reported that Apple released its restrictions on a private API for video capturing. As a result, Apple approved Ustream, a live video streaming app that’s free in the App Store. The extra bonus? In addition to streaming-video capability, the app has a video recorder, too — and that also works with older iPhones.

Permitting the video API in third-party apps should open doors to a host of apps offering video recording for older iPhones. Today, The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s Erica Sadun pointed out a $1 app called Camcorder for shooting video with older iPhones. Its interface is straight to the point: You launch the app, and there’s a Record button to start capturing. However, Sadun noted the frame rate is slow on an iPhone 3G, and you can’t do much with the recorded video except watch it on your iPhone. She added that the GUI is flimsy.

Based on those comments, we’d say “pass.” But look forward to some slick video-recording apps optimized for older iPhones. It’s inevitable developers will capitalize on this opportunity.

This should come as good news for many owners of the previous-generation iPhones. Previously, video recording was exclusive to the new iPhone 3GS. Owners of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G could only gain access to video recording by jailbreaking the iPhone, but that’s no longer the case.

Camcorder Download Link [iTunes]

Ustream Download Link [iTunes]

See Also:

• 6 Reasons to Jailbreak Your iPhone
• Why the IPhone Doesn’t Record Video
• Apple Hints at Video Conferencing for Future iPhones
• Apple’s Next Media Frontier Will Be Streaming Video

As a longtime user and collector of toy cameras, I’ve frequently come to the point where I question the expenses that this hobby racks up. The cameras themselves are typically pretty cheap, ranging from $20 for a Holga to a few hundred for something more interesting like a Horizon panoramic. It’s the film, processing, and scanning that are time and resource hungry, but I’ve always found the results to be worth it.

Japan, known for its forward-thinking in expensive cameras, has also been doing well in the design department for cheaper (but not cheap!) toy cameras. The Blackbird, Fly comes to mind. However, now there’s an ongoing mix between the effects and other fun you can have with an analogue camera and new digital cameras that can do all of that and more. Interestingly, most of these are actually coming from Takara-Tomy.

The new “PokeDigi” Pocket Digital Camera (the only non Takara-Tomy cam on the list) is a square format camera in a tiny digital box, and lets you simulate all of the analogue Holga goodness you want, plus video, for around $50. Not bad!

Purikura, in case you hadn’t heard, has been a part of most Japanese girls growing up for the past decade and a half. The Love Digi makes many of the features of a purikura booth portable, minus the printing, and allows young girls to make animated photos, add effects, and more.

Though it’s not out yet, the Kururin Shot is all about effects, mostly of the digital photoshop-style variety, but also imitations of analogue effects.

Finally, though it needs no introduction for toy-camera fanatics, the Xiao prints your photos right inside the camera itself, and makes for a great platform for decoration.

A lot of this makes me wonder why these features aren’t already included in a lot of consumer digital cameras. Do they seem too “cheap” even to be in a standard snapshot digital camera? Seems too fun not to include them.