New Camera Can See Through Clothes

British company ThruVision has developed a new camera, the T5000, that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25 meters away in what could be a breakthrough for the security industry. The camera uses "passive imaging technology" to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays -- known as Terahertz or T-rays -- that they emit. The technology works on the basis that all people and objects emit low levels of electromagnetic radiation. Terahertz rays lie somewhere between infrared and microwaves on the electromagnetic spectrum and travel through clouds and walls.

The high-powered camera can detect hidden objects from up to 80 feet away and is effective even when people are moving. It does not reveal physical body details and the screening is harmless, the company says. "Acts of terrorism have shaken the world in recent years and security precautions have been tightened globally," said Clive Beattie, the chief executive of ThruVision. "The ability to see both metallic and non-metallic items on people out to 25 meters is certainly a key capability that will enhance any comprehensive security system."

Reuters.com

Panasonic - Class 6 SDHC 32GB memory cards

Think you already have enough memory on your camera’s memory card? Think again! With memory cards getting larger in size and faster in speed, even if yours was bought not very long before, it will likely go out of date as this SDHC card giant gets released.

Panasonic’s latest Class 6 SDHC card will allow? a maximum transfer rate of 20MB/s. This 32GB monster has enough storage capacity to store up to four hours of 1920 x 1080i compressed AVCHD video!

With such great features, the price is quite hefty too: $699, which is about 356 pounds!

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Canon Introduces New Scanners

Canon U.S.A. is shipping its ScanFront 220 and ScanFront 220P network scanners, which were displayed at the AIIM Conference & Expo in Boston in April of this year. Both models have decent speeds, able to scan letter-sized documents at up to 26 ppm (pages per minute) or 35 ipm (images per minute), as well as capture black-and-white, grayscale and color images. Supported file formats include JPEG, TIFF, and searchable and high-compression PDF.

According to Canon officials, the new ScanFront 220 and 220P take up less desk space than most competitive models. Both scanners can be controlled via an 8.5-inch touch-screen on which users can preview documents, and both support "scan-to" destinations, including e-mail, "folder," FTP and USB. The ScanFront 220 and 220P are available now through authorized Canon dealers and resellers, though the pricing clearly puts the devices as business oriented models: the 220 starts at $1,995, while the 220P starts at $2,195.

eWeek.com

Samsung SC-DC173 DVD Digital Camcorder Review

The Samsung SC-DC173 looks really small; it fits and feels snug for the most part on my hand. The DVD camera sizes in at 54x87x121 (WxHxD) and is really light. You won’t have any trouble carrying it around and using it for extended uses.

Second of all I don’t like how the zoom dial is built. The zoom dial which tilts left and right feels cheap for some reason. It feels too loose for my taste. In fact the unit I am reviewing had times where I would let go of the zoom button and it would still be zooming slowly. This means it has the possibility of getting stuck.

Thirdly, on the bottom of the camera lie the SD card slot and its cover. The cover is made of plastic but this one is hard to remove and is annoying to move around.

There really isn’t much buttons on the SC-DC173 which is preferable for some people. Some people just like a camcorder that they can just pick up and use without having to fiddle around with any settings. The SC-DC173 is exactly that type of camera.
The LCD screen is 2.7” in size and has a resolution of 112K. The LCD screen moves very quickly and is super smooth. I know for a fact that on some really cheap camcorders (Mustek, etc) and on some cheap digital cameras that the LCD lags. This one does not do such a thing. The LCD color output is good because there is a nice natural saturation present. The screen itself is matte and is not shiny which a good thing is on a bright sunny day. In extremely bright days the camera has a “LCD Enhancer” mode right above the LCD that makes the screen even brighter. For the most part the LCD screen is totally usable during any circumstances.

Full Review...

The camera behind Google Maps 360-degree View

In case you missed it, Google recently launched a new feature on its mapping service that allows people to see a 360-degree view of many streets in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami.

Immersive Media, one of the companies helping Google map out the world in 360-degrees, uses a pretty interesting device to achieve the goal. Don’t take this the wrong way though, Google isn’t relying on another company to do their dirty work. The web search giant also has its own vehicles, equipped with higher resolution cameras, taking snapshots of the streets in all their glory. Still, a disco ball with 11 individual lenses mounted on top of a Volkswagen Beetle is quite an interesting way to go about it.

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Cell phone cameras help Japanese lose weight

Some Japanese cell phone users are photographing their meals and sending the image to nutritionists for analysis and recommendations. Public health insurance offices in Osaka prefecture in western Japan have launched the service on a trial basis. About 100 cardiac patients signed up in the first year, followed by diabetes and obesity patients in the second. Nutritionists can work with photos from one day's meals to several weeks' worth; results come back in three days. Participants can also log onto a Web site to get further dietary information and upload photos from digital cameras.

Japan is slowly losing its reputation for low-calorie fish-and-rice diets and slim waistlines. As Japanese have turned to bigger portions and more meat and fried foods, obesity and related illnesses such as high blood pressure have become a rising concern. The Health Ministry estimated last year that more than half of Japanese men and about one in five women between 40 and 70 years of age (nearly 20 million people) were at risk of metabolic syndrome, a term for a cluster of conditions associated with obesity, high cholesterol and increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

CNN

SED technology delayed indefinitely

Have you been waiting since 2005 to purchase a new HDTV that uses surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) technology? Perhaps you had best look for alternatives as there are now concerns that SED technology will never make it as far as your local television store. Canon was planning to launch products in the fourth quarter of this year but that release has again been delayed, this time indefinitely.

Canon cites two reasons for the delay: legal troubles (presumably still with Applied Nanotech, a subsidiary of Nano-Proprietary) and cost-related production problems. Producing these next-generation flat-panel TVs at affordable prices will take further production improvements.

SED technology promises good brightness, fast response times and a very high contrast ratio. Some of these claims seemed too good to be true when SED was first announced but while SED has been sitting on the sidelines both LCD and PDP technologies have improved over multiple retail generations.

Canon Press Release

Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision SE Webcam

In this review, Benchmark Reviews will evaluate the progression of technology into a product which hopes to establish itself as the pinnacle of PicturePhone evolution: Logitech's QuickCam Ultra Vision Special Edition Webcam.

Enjoy true-to-life video calls with twice the image clarity of conventional Webcams, thanks to the precision-engineered, 5-element glass lens. QuickCam Ultra Vision uses Logitech RightLight2 Technology to give you the highest quality image regardless of your lighting, and RightSound for clear, echo-free audio. It´s video calling that truly is true-to-life.

It may look similar to most of the other products sitting on store shelves, but it is in fact very different. To begin with, it features a five-element glass lens system which works together to render 640x480 video quality on the level of high-end security cameras. Then, add to it a 1.3 megapixel sensor, and the still-image resolution climbs to 1280x960. Finally, mix in a few unique touches: a snapshot and video button, video activity signal, echo-free audio, adjustable angle lens, and a counter-balanced flexible stand. When it's all taken into consideration, the QuickCam Ultra Vision shares very little with the competition.

Full Review

Camcorders in theaters allowed in Canada, Hollywood not happy, but we should be !

Canadian law apparently doesn't ban people from bringing camcorders into a movie theater and taping what they see. And when Canadians are attending up north promo screenings, things start getting sticky. Warner Bros. is claiming 70% of pirated WB films that hit the streets in the past 18th months originated in Canada.

So starting June 7th, there will be no more promo screenings in Canada. The WB ban will continue until Canada passes a law banning camcorders. There will still be press screenings for credentialed viewers…but no more preview screenings for the Canadian public.

Says WB VP Darcy Antonellis: '"Within the first week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up."'

Say what you will about DRM and pirating screener copies etc. etc. until your face turns blue, but it is pretty ridiculous that at the very least Canadian movie theaters aren't allowed to check people's bags for cameras at promos screenings.

More @ Here

WiFi into camera memory cards

Chip start-up Eye-Fi has created a memory card that includes a Wi-Fi chip. When a picture is taken, the photo is automatically sent to a photo site, according to Ken Elefant, a partner at Opus Capital, which has invested in the company. When you get the memory card, you set the priorities so that the photos get automatically sent to a given photo site. It is currently unclear on whether the user can choose which photos are sent or whether every single one is transferred. One element that Eye-Fi is trying to integrate is the automatic posting of images to photo blogs. The card fits the standard SD format because the memory chips are stacked.

Considering wi-fi can tap battery power and raise the price of memory cards but the chip can essentially save the end-user a lot of time, tell me Neowin, is this something consumers want?

News.com

Very Nice Digital SLR

Hardware Canucks looks at the Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA motherboard. DriverHeaven has a DDR2 memory roundup for us to read about. This is a nice camera, Trusted Reviews reviews the Fujifilm S5 Pro.

Unlike other current digital SLRs, in fact unlike most other digital cameras in general, in developing the S5 Pro Fujifilm has forgone the boost in megapixels that normally accompanies a model upgrade and concentrated instead on other factors to improve picture quality, such as colour rendition, dynamic range and smoother tonal gradation.

TRUSTEDREVIEWs.com

Bioscrypt Introduces 3D Face RecoBioscrypt Introduces 3D Face Recognition Cameragnition Camera

Bioscrypt, a Toronto-based company, has claimed an industry first with its VisionAccess 3D DeskCam – a 3D camera that scans the users face using infrared and visible light for authentication purposes. The security scanning works by using 40,000 identification points, using specifics portions of the face. So far, tests have proved that the system can differentiate between identical twins. Ryan Zlockie, director of product management, claimed that facial hair will make no impact on the identification (no shaving before authentication necessary) but of course cosmetic surgery will require a person to reregister for the system.

The company is hoping the new camera will replace the need for passwords, tokens, or cards. The software with the camera automatically initiates network logon and/or single sign-on to pre-registered web-based or Microsoft Windows applications. A 3 inch tall, half inch wide, USB desktop version is expected for shipping to customers, integrators, and partners in the second half of 2007.

source: DailyTech

Canon PowerShot TX1

Canon introduced its PowerShot TX1 digital camera, a multitasking little sucker that's about the size of a deck of cards. It can shoot both 7.1-megapixel stills and 720p high-definition video in 16:9 format at 30 frames per second, recording its image data on SD memory cards, higher-capacity SDHC cards, MultiMedia and MMCplus cards. It has an LCD viewscreen that swivels out like a camcorder, and uses an improved Digic III image processor that Canon says contributes to faster startup, improved image quality and extended battery life.

The camera has component outputs for playing that 720p footage on an HDTV, and its MovieSnap feature also lets you grab frames from the HDTV footage for use as stills. It looks like Canon didn't skimp on the still-camera capabilities, either, helping you hold its retractable 10x optical zoom lens steady with optical image stabilization that shifts the lens to compensate for unwanted camera movement.

Canon's $499.99 price for the TX1 is apparently aimed to undercut the $699 Sanyo Xacti HD2 flash-based HD camcorder, while both have the same megapixel count and 10x zoom lenses.

Source @ Here

Panasonic's AG-HSC1U 3-CCD 'Pro' Camcorder

Panasonic unveiled its AG-HSC1U camcorder, a 3-CCD high-definition shooter that the company is billing as the world's smallest 3-chip professional HD camera. Its specs are nearly the same as its brandmate that uses those 4GB (88-minute) SDHC cards, the HDC-SD1, but it adds a 40GB hard drive on which to store their footage. The camcorder's also equipped with a slightly faster Leica lens, an f/1.6 as opposed to the f/1.8 of that more consumer-oriented HDC-SD1.

Professionals may scoff at Panasonic suggesting they use this tiny camcorder, but some pros may indeed employ it in hazardous or dangerous conditions. Heck, that $2099 price amounts to almost a disposable camcorder in the professional realm. It all depends on what you mean by "professional." But this might be just right for some pro situations.

That 40-gig hard drive that's so nicely portable and stores such a tremendous amount of footage makes this camcorder a lot easier to justify in pro-level field conditions. The remaining question: how good is the quality of that H.264 MPEG-4 footage using the AVCHD format, with its measly 15Mbps bit rate as implemented thus far? Will that be bumped up to the AVCHD format's potential 24Mbps bit rate?

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Nikon Coolpix S10 review

The S10’s stand out feature is its curvaceous waveform bodywork that looks extremely nice and is actually rather nice to hold as well. But the first impression I had out of the box, was, well, cheap! It’s an all-plastic model and it lacks the tough-as-teak tactile feel of its predecessors. In fact the silver livery is also very easy to mark, which was a tad disappointing.

The attractive if somewhat fragile bodywork aside, handling is very nice indeed. The curvy design making the camera sit neatly in the hand making the camera nice to hold and use, even when the 10x optical zoom lens is swivelled round through its 270-degrees of arc. Two controls sit on the lens section of the camera, Nikon’s version of CCD shift anti shake is activated by a press of the VR button and Face Priority AF, which automatically detects and follows peoples faces in the frame. Both are quick to use and get at. However, as with other Face AF systems I’ve looked at, it is quite slow at tracking moving subjects.

VR on the other hand works a treat providing around 3-stops of equivalent exposure. The back plate hosts the large 2.5-inch screen, a four-way joystick-style control for scrolling etc and the menu, delete, mode and shooting or playback buttons. Menus are straightforward and simple to understand with an excellent colour coding system and large fonts. However, the addition of the joystick style controller (as opposed to a larger four-way job button) can be a bit hit and miss in use (selecting the wrong direction when scrolling for example) but necessitated by that excellent large screen.

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Ultrathin Origami lens for mini digicams

The constant battle between companies trying to shove the most megapixels into the smallest frame at all costs just might have some serious competition on the horizon, as researchers at UC San Diego have built an ultrathin, high resolution digicam by simply "folding up the telephoto lens." The aptly-named Origami lens hopes to "yield lightweight, slim, and powerful miniature cameras for unmanned surveillance aircraft, cellphones, and infrared night vision applications," and was constructed using the same basic principles found on the Cassegrain telescope that was crafted in 1672. On a disk of calcium fluoride, the engineers "cut a series of concentric, reflective surfaces that bend and focus the light as it is bounced to a facing flat reflector," creating an area where incoming light will follow a zigzag path until it reaches the CMOS light sensor. The biggest drawback, however, is the new camera's "limited depth of focus," but the folks behind the creation are already designing variable-focus folded optical systems to hopefully cure that nagging issue. Ideally, the team would like to see their work bring high resolution, respectful imagers to cellphones, doing away with the relatively antiquated sensors on most mainstream mobiles, but even under the best conditions it's probably a few years away.

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Canon's iVIS HV20 HD camcorder

Well howdy HV20, we've been expecting you. Not too much of a surprise to find Canon's high-def iVIS HV20 camcorder loosed after the inadvertent appearance on Circuit City's web site the other day. Instead of an upright form factor like Canon's HV10, they've gone long-and-lean this time which should help bring a bit more stability to your videos. As we hoped, low light shooting has indeed been improved from a 5 to 3 lux sensitivity at 1/30 second shutter speed or from 0.3 to 0.2 lux at 1/2 second shutter speed. Everything else is just like we heard on this HDV 1080i MiniDV recorder: 2.96 megapixel CMOS sensor, 10x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD, miniSD slot and new HDMI out, accessory shoe, and jacks for your headphones and mic. The HV20 is expected to hit Japan sometime in March, priced at about ¥140,000 ($1,154) to go head-to-head with Sony's HDR-HC7. No guarantees mind you, but we expect this to come west before summer.

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Panasonic's DMC-FX30 wide-angle 7.2 megapixel shooter

Panasonic is also unveiling their Lumix DMC-FX30 this morning which Panny claims is the "world's slimmest" to pack a 28mm wide-angle lens. Ok, but at 22-mm (0.87-inches) it's a full 0.2-mm thicker than the listed specs for Samsung's new 28mm wide-angle L74 which packs the same 7.2 megapixel CCD and 3.6x zoom but a bigger 3.0-inch touchscreen LCD around back. Thing is, the L74 has an irregular shape so who knows what to believe at this point -- it wouldn't be the first time Samsung fudged its numbers. So... hyperbole aside, the FX30 is thin and features a 3.6x LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT optical zoom lens, 7.2 megapixel CCD, Mega OIS optical image stabilization, Venus Engine III image-processing for shooting at ISO 1250, and a 2.5-inch 207k pixel LCD (the L74 throws down 230k pixels) with "Power LCD" to boost brightness by 40% (at the expense of battery life) when outdoors. It also records 848 x 480 video to SDHC cards at 30fps and shoots with a shutter release time lag of 0.005 seconds and a 2 frames per second burst mode at full resolution for a maximum of just 5 images. Rounding things out are a 280 picture battery and $349 price tag when these ship sometime in February.

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Canon announces new iVIS DVD camcorders

Canon may not have been able to keep its new HV20 HD camcorder under wraps, but it seems to have fared better with its announcement of this new pair of DVD camcorders in its iVIS line, revealing details on them on its own terms. The iVIS DC50 looks to be the more capable of the two, with a 5 megapixel CCD, 10x optical zoom, 2.7-inch widescreen LCD, and a miniSD slot, although it appears to be for still pictures only. The iVIS DC200 takes things down a notch to a 680,000 pixel CCD, but increases the optical zoom to 35x, with the camcorder packing the same 2.7-inch widescreen display and still picture-only miniSD slot. Look for both to hit Japan sometime next month, with the DC50 expected to come in around 100,000 Yen ($830) and the DC200 running about 60,000 Yen ($500).

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