Samsung announces 1080p in-bezel CMOS sensor, webcam spying going HD

Next time you hit your local electronics emporium, you might just find the HD moniker attached to an unfamiliar category: bezel-integrated webcams. Samsung’s newly announced S5K6A1 CMOS sensor can perform 720p video recording at 30fps or shoot 1.3 megapixel images, while its senior sibling S5K5B3 elevates those values to 1080p / 30fps and 2.1 megapixels, respectively. Touting an autofocus feature that helps with reading barcodes and business cards as well as improved low-light performance, Samsung tells us these new must-have laptop parts are set for mass production in the second quarter of this year. Samples are available today, so if your name’s Michael Dell or Arimasa Naitoh, why not give Sammy a call?

Samsung announces 1080p in-bezel CMOS sensor, webcam spying going HD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PrimeSense fesses up: it’s the magic behind Microsoft’s Project Natal

Up until now, we haven’t actually been able to find out too much about the ins and outs of Project Natal. For all we knew, it’s a technology designed in the back stall of a unicorn barn, and the final name will somehow involve diphthongs from both “lasers” and “Robot Apocalypse.” All jesting aside, this really does mark the first bona fide announcement about the nuts and bolts behind Microsoft‘s forthcoming motion sensing add-on for its Xbox 360, and lo and behold, the revealing is being done by the same company we sat down with earlier this month at GDC. Quite a few of you assumed that PrimeSense’s webcam was indeed Project Natal in camouflage when we posted up our original hands-on, and while we couldn’t confirm or deny those suspicions at the time, we can today. So, what’s this mean for you? It probably means that PrimeSense is actively looking to get its 3D-sensing technology (which has obviously been tweaked quite a bit by Microsoft, to its credit) into as many living room scenarios as possible, so what you’re seeing in Natal might just appear elsewhere in the very near future. Did your imagination just run wild? No? Have a look back at our GDC experience and try again.

Continue reading PrimeSense fesses up: it’s the magic behind Microsoft’s Project Natal

PrimeSense fesses up: it’s the magic behind Microsoft’s Project Natal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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InVisage envisions a world where cell phone cameras don’t suck, embraces quantum dots

The invention of nanocrystal semiconductors — more commonly called quantum dots — has spurred scientists to create everything from precisely-colored LED lamps to higher-density flash memory. There’s also been some talk of applying a solution of the tiny crystals to create higher sensitivity cameras, and according to a company named InVisage, that latter utility is almost ready for commercial production. By smearing light-amplifying quantum dots onto the existing CMOS sensors used in cell phone cameras like so much strawberry jam, InVisage claims it will offer smartphone sensors that have four times the performance and twice the dynamic range of existing chips by the end of the year, and roll out the conveyor belts in late 2011, just in time for the contract to end on your terrible new cameraphone.

[Thanks, Matt]

InVisage envisions a world where cell phone cameras don’t suck, embraces quantum dots originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quantum Technology Promises Wedding Photos From Phone Cameras

sensor size comparison. photo by Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

A new sensor technology promises to make cellphone cameras good enough to use for wedding photos.

InVisage Technologies, a Menlo Park, California, company, has developed an image sensor using quantum dots instead of silicon. The company claims its technology increases sensor performance by more than four times.

“We have all heard ‘Gee, I wish the camera on my iPhone was better,’” says InVisage’s President and CEO Jess Lee. “But the heart of the problem is in the heart of the camera, which is the sensor.”

Most cameras today used either a CCD (charged-couple device) sensor or a CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor)-based sensor. The silicon in current image sensors has a light-absorbing efficiency of only about 50 percent, says Lee.

Reducing efficiency still further are the layers of copper or aluminum circuitry laid on top of the silicon. The metal blocks the light, so only a fraction of a sensor’s silicon is exposed to light.

Replacing silicon with quantum dots could change all that. A quantum dot is a nanocrystal made of a special class of semiconductors. It allows manufacturers to have a very high degree of control over its conductive properties, and is about 90 percent efficient at absorbing light, according to Lee.

The quantum dots are usually suspended in fluid. InVisage takes a vial of these and spins it onto a layer of silicon, then adds the required metal circuitry to create a new type of sensor that it is calling QuantumFilm.

invisage-chart3In addition to the increased sensitivity, InVisage’s technology allows the metal circuits to be placed underneath the quantum film, where they don’t block the light.

“This is entirely different from the type of image sensors that we have right now,” says Tom Hausken, director with market research firm Strategies Unlimited. “Usually you see incremental improvements in sensor design, but these guys have made a significant change in the process.”

Quantum dots can be made from silicon, tellurides or sulphides. InVisage won’t reveal exactly which material it is using.

As opposed to silicon’s indirect band gap, quantum dots have a direct band gap. Lee says Invisage can tune the Dots’ band gap much more efficiently than silicon so it is more sensitive to visible light, ultraviolet and even infrared waves.

In the last few years, manufacturers have been touting megapixels as the measure of a camera’s prowess. But the true measure of picture quality is not as much in the megapixels but in the size of the sensor used in the device.

To capture the light, imaging sensors need to have as much area as possible. Powerful DSLR cameras have an imaging sensor that’s about a third of the size of a business card, while camera phones sport sensors that are only about a quarter inch wide (see top photo). Smaller sensors mean less light sensitivity for each pixel on the sensor, and that translates into lower-quality images.

Quantum dot-based sensors won’t be more expensive than traditional CMOS-based sensors, promises Lee. InVisage says it will have samples ready for phone manufacturers by the end of the year and the sensors could be in phones by mid next-year.

Though quantum dots are commercially produced by other manufacturers, they have never been used on image sensors before, says Hausken.

“Mostly people have looked to use it in displays, solar cells and as identification markers,” he says. “So we will have to see how effective and reliable it is as a sensor.”

See Also:

Photo: CCD senor (Divine Harvester/Flickr)

Photo: Jonathan Snyder / Wired.com


Apple patent application offers more evidence of projector plans

They’re easily missed about the mass of Apple patent applications revealed each year, but the company has filed a few regarding projectors (pico projectors, specifically), and the latest one to be published has now offered a few more details on how they might all fit together. That application boasts the rather broad title of “projector system and methods,” and basically describes a setup that would let various devices (including a laptop or phone) remotely interact with a projector, which could itself be built into a device like a phone. To do that, each device in question would be equipped with a sensor of some sort that would be able to receive data from the projector, and even allow you to do fairly advanced things like calibrate the projector remotely. The application further goes on to detail how the system could accommodate multiple clients — letting folks overlay multiple images on a single presentation, for example — and it would apparently be able to receive and broadcast audio between multiple clients as well. Does this mean you’ll soon be able to control your pico projector-equipped iPhone from your sensor-equipped MacBook? Probably not, but it may not be quite as far fetched as some of Apple’s other patent applications.

Apple patent application offers more evidence of projector plans originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nanoscale computer chips set to invade your cells

Nanoscale computer chips set to invade your cells

If you’ve followed the progression of CPU tech you’ve surely learned that improving nanoscale chip fabrication of processors is the key to success these days. Smaller transistors means more speed in any given chip — or smaller chips of the same speed, an idea that has some researchers pondering what would happen if you were to inject a CPU into your cells. The team, centered at the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona, was able to insert 3µm chips into living cells. Of those receiving this augmentation 90 percent survived, meaning if you were to get this treatment today you’d only be 10 percent dead. Right now the chips do nothing, but future applications include the potential for embedding sensors inside you, down where you store your deepest, darkest secrets.

Nanoscale computer chips set to invade your cells originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PrimeSense talks full-body motion control at GDC, gives us a video demonstration

PrimeSense was formed in 2005, and unless you’re a sickly obsessed silicon junkie, you’ve probably never heard of them. All that changes today. We sat down with the company at GDC to learn more about the chip that it produces, and we left with an imagination sore from being stretched so severely. Put simply, the company manufacturers a microchip that, when paired with off-the-shelf optics, can create a 3D grid that a computer can understand. The purpose here, as you can likely glean, is to enable PlayStation Eye-like interactions, or as the company suggests, a “more natural” way to interface with devices you use every day. Rather than grabbing the remote to switch channels or snapping up that HTPC keyboard in order to flip through your stored DVD library, PrimeSense would rather you kick back on the sofa and gently flick your hands in order to turn to this week’s Gossip Girl or sort through those classic horror flicks.

It’s important to remember that PrimeSense isn’t in the business of creating hardware, but today we were shown a reference design that looks an awful lot like an enlarged webcam. The device is completely USB powered, and while the unit shown in the images and video here was obviously a standalone device, we were told that it would be possible to integrate the solution into displays and the like in the future. They also mentioned that the depth location — which enables it to map out a room and detect your entire body — was done on-chip, with only the associated middleware taxing the CPU. Still, they’ve had success running this on Atom-level processors, so there’s certainly no big horsepower hang-up preventing it from hitting up a variety of markets.

More after the break…

Continue reading PrimeSense talks full-body motion control at GDC, gives us a video demonstration

PrimeSense talks full-body motion control at GDC, gives us a video demonstration originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA Sports introduces Active 2.0 at GDC, complete with sensors galore

By and large, EA Sports’ Season Opener event here at GDC was underwhelming, but one glimmer of newness did manage to shine through. Nearly a year after Active hit stores (video after the break) and encouraged Wii gamers to drop those unwanted pounds before hitting the soft sand in the summer, the company has announced that Active 2.0 (a working title) is currently in development for Wii, PS3, iPod touch and iPhone. We’re told that a “new suite of fitness products” will be launching in the fall, with the Active 2.0 program delivering “true fitness results by featuring an innovative wireless control system powered by new leg and arm straps with motion sensors, a heart rate monitor to capture intensity and a new online hub to track and share workout data.” Outside of that, details are nonexistent (like how exactly the iPod / iPhone components will factor into this equation), though we get the feeling that Xbox 360 owners may be left out of the party. Here’s hoping we’re wrong.

Continue reading EA Sports introduces Active 2.0 at GDC, complete with sensors galore

EA Sports introduces Active 2.0 at GDC, complete with sensors galore originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Razer and Sixense distribute SDK and FPS shooter utility through Steam

Surely you remember those Sixense motion controls that we caught lounging around at Razer’s CES booth, right? Yeah. Today at the Game Developers Conference, both outfits have teamed up in order to distribute the Ultra-Precise Motion Controller SDK and FPS utility library via Steam, which should give devs the ability to create new games and port existing titles for use with the aforementioned sticks. We’re told that these new tools will require “require virtually no knowledge of the inner workings of the controller,” enabling coders to craft titles that take full advantage of the six degrees of freedom. Will this turn the PC into the next Wii? We kind of doubt it, but at least someone’s looking out for non-console gamers who have a secret obsession with Nintendo’s Wiimote.

Continue reading Razer and Sixense distribute SDK and FPS shooter utility through Steam

Razer and Sixense distribute SDK and FPS shooter utility through Steam originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OmniVision brings RAW shooting to mobiles with new 5 megapixel sensor

It seems that the megapixel race in the mobile arena has slowed (temporarily, at least), but it’s not like innovation has completely ground to a halt. OmniVision, which made waves around a month ago with its 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor, has just announced what may be the most significant introduction in the cameraphone space… ever. The 1/4-inch, 5 megapixel RAW sensor is said to offer up best-in-class low light sensitivity (680-mV/lux-sec), and it can also capture 720p video at 60 frames per second or 1080p at 30 frames per second. The real kicker, however, is its ability to shoot in RAW, which would give cameraphone shooters a much greater range of editing options when it came time to tweak before hitting Flickr. We’re told that the chip is sampling now and should hit mass production this July, and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t falling over ourselves to get ahold of a RAW-capable smartphone.

OmniVision brings RAW shooting to mobiles with new 5 megapixel sensor originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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