Hasta La Gadget!

So, let’s say you’re out with a bud. Two buds. Just you three, hanging out, talking up memories of the days when you all kept in touch via the Kin Spot. And then, a monument. Any monument will do. You bust out a point and shoot, scrunch together, and snap a picture. Fast forward to next week, and your buds are still wondering when you’re ever going to offload those images and shoot ’em over via email. You’ve not only let down the two most important people in your life, but you’ve failed yourself. Enter Samsung’s Ucim camera, which sports a full trio of USB ports meant to house three USB memory nubs. When the shutter snaps, it logs images to all three nubs, and when the party’s over, you and your two buds grab your respective nubs and part ways. Too bad it’s just a concept for now, but here’s hoping it becomes much more than that in the near future. Your buds hope so, too.

Samsung Ucim digicam concept saves shots to three USB sticks originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Dec 2010 17:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Word Lens for the iPhone is one of the most amazing apps we have ever seen. Take a look at this, but put down any hot liquids first.

It’s an augmented-reality, OCR-capable translation app, but that’s a poor description. A better one would be “magic.” World Lens looks at any printed text through the iPhone’s camera, reads it, translates between Spanish and English. That’s pretty impressive already — it does it in real time — but it also matches the color, font and perspective of the text, and remaps it onto the image. It’s as if the world itself has been translated.

Impressed? You’re not the only one. John Gruber of Daring Fireball puts it best: “[It’s] as though near-future time travelers started sending us apps instead of Terminators.”

We’ve tested the app, and it works just as shown in the video. In demo mode, it can rearrange (or blank out) any text in the camera’s field of vision. You need to purchase translation packs to do the actual translation.

In our tests, it worked smoothly, although the words had a tendency to wiggle around a bit, switching between English and Spanish and flipping between alternate translations. You could get the gist of a sentence, but not read it clearly. Holding the camera very steady helped mitigate the “wiggling” effect.

Word Lens is a taste of science fiction, something like a visual version of the universal translator or the Babelfish. Only instead of being a convenient device to avoid movie subtitles, it’s a real, functioning tool.

Word Lens is free, and will do some fancy rearranging of words to show you how it works. The Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries are in-app purchases, for $5 each, and the app runs offline — perfect for when you’re traveling. You can pick your coffee back up, now.

Word Lens download [iTunes]

Word Lens product page [Quest Visual]

See Also:

• Augmented Reality App Identifies Strangers With Camera
• How it Works: Augmented Reality
• Augmented Reality Hobo Signs? There's an App for That
• Yelp Sneaks Augmented Reality Into iPhone App
• Augmented Reality Ghost Hunting Creeps Into App Store
• Bionic Eye: Augmented iPhone Awesomeness in App Store
• Video: Nearest Subway App Overlays Virtual Maps on Real World …

It may never ship at a price point we peons can stomach, but we’re no less thrilled to see RED’s fixed lens Scarlet being handled by a mere mortal on video. One Tonaci Tran was fortunate enough to brush into Jarred Land at a 3D workshop, and he just so happened to have a fully functional Scarlet on his person. Tori noted that the unit was a touch lighter than the Epic, and the top-mounted 5-inch touchscreen was obviously rather captivating. We’d bother going on (and on), but chances are you’ve already clicked through to catch the video. And if not… why?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading RED Scarlet fixed lens camera shown in public (video)

RED Scarlet fixed lens camera shown in public (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve all been there, right? Late night at a cemetery in Mississippi–you want to get in touch with the spirits, so you shed a few layers. That’s exactly what happened to one Robert Hurst. The 47-year-old was hanging out in a south Mississippi cemetery. He stripped naked (naturally) because it turns out that human skin is “best canvas to show spirits’ orbs of energy,” according to the Washington Post.

The footage was captured on security cams set up to capture vandals. Hurst isn’t being charged with that, be he was held for misdemeanor indecent exposure. He turned himself in on Friday and post $500 bond.

He told the press that the whole taking off his clothes in the cemetery decision was a “stupid” one.