Category Archives: Software

Enhance! Photo analysis finds faces reflected in eyeballs

Posted on by

Devin Coldewey. NBC News Dec 27th, 2013 (http://www.nbcnews.com)

It’s the stuff of sci-fi, or at least of “CSI”: British researchers have demonstrated a technique whereby faces reflected in a person’s eye can be extracted from a picture. Zoom in far enough, it turns out, and that twinkle in your eye turns into a full-blown portrait.

Movie buffs may remember something like this appearing in the 1982 sci-fi classic “Blade Runner,” in which a photo is “enhanced” to an unreasonable degree — and of course many a cop drama or mystery has relied on such photographic tricks as well to produce evidence. But this time it’s for real.

Psychologists Rob Jenkins, of the University of York, and Christie Kerr, of the University of Glasgow, show that in the proper conditions, reflections off the pupil of the eye can contain enough details to identify faces. Potential applications aren’t far off from the fictional representations: A picture of a victim might hide details of the attacker or surroundings.

Full article and pictures at the source>

Click! Google rebuilds Android camera base for better photos

Posted on by

Rebuilt software plumbing in Android should give new power to camera apps — once Google makes the interface available to other programmers besides its own.

by Stephen Shankland. November 25th, 2013 (http://news.cnet.com)

Want a better camera on your Android device? Google does, too.

For that reason, the company has overhauled the mobile OS’s plumbing. Google has built deep into Android support for two higher-end photography features — raw image formats and burst mode — and could expose those features so that programmers could tap into them, the company said.

Evidence of raw and burst-mode photos in the Android source code surfaced earlier in November, but Google has now commented on the technology. Specifically, spokeswoman Gina Scigliano said the support is now present in Android’s hardware abstraction layer (HAL), the part of the operating system that handles communications with a mobile device’s actual hardware.

“Android’s latest camera HAL (hardware abstraction layer) and framework supports raw and burst-mode photography,” Scigliano said. “We will expose a developer API [application programming interface] in a future release to expose more of the HAL functionality.”

Full article at source>

How to turn your smartphone into a spy camera or baby monitor

Posted on by

By Joshua Sherman  —   

If you’re getting that paranoid itch to keep an eye on someone (or someplace), but only have a limited budget, fear not. We’re in the second decade of the 21st century. You don’t need to buy a bunch of expensive equipment to spy anymore. These days, all you need is an old smartphone. With a few bucks, an old Android device or iPhone, a charger, and some tape or a tripod for mounting, you can monitor whatever you want. Here’s how to do it.

Note: Before beginning, you must be using a wireless network that is secure and password protected. Setting this up on an unprotected network will allow anyone on that network to see through your cameras! This guide also comes with no warranty and is not intended to be a secure security system that guarantees safety – if you want something like that, get a professional security solution.

Full article at source>

New “Camera Matchmaker” Makes it Easier to Find the Perfect Camera

Posted on by

Cameta Camera has leveraged technology from Lela.com to create a web-based camera finder, the Cameta Matchmaker. This new feature uses innovative technology to help buyers quickly find their perfect camera; in conjunction with its release, Cameta is offering a chance to win a new Nikon 1 J1 Digital Camera 2-Lens Kit to anyone who registers and uses “Matchmaker.”

Amityville, NY (PRWEB) (http://www.prweb.com) September 12, 2013

In a market flooded with dozens of camera models with hundreds of complicated features, finding the right camera can be a little overwhelming. However, a new, web-based camera finder from photo equipment retailer Cameta Camera, which leverages innovative technology from Lela.com, makes this task much easier. “Matchmaker” — available at Cameta.com — asks a few simple questions, analyzes the answers and provides a list of compatible cameras, complete with scores based on how well each model fits the user’s personality and needs. It’s a unique way to shop that gives everyone the ability to buy with confidence, even those who aren’t technologically savvy.

“It’s really simple, and incredibly accurate,” says Cameta Camera’s online director Michael Lerner. “You can go from start to checkout in less than a minute, and because Matchmaker is actually based on human psychology, you don’t need to know anything about photography to find the perfect camera.”

Matchmaker is presented as a fast, fun quiz, with questions that, on the surface, have nothing to do with photography. For example, one question asks the user which make-believe vehicle they would prefer, while another inquires about their sense of style. These seemingly random, simple questions actually help Matchmaker build a complex personality profile that is cross-referenced with Cameta’s database of available cameras to produce a list of individualized matches, each with a compatibility score.

And while Matchmaker is built on years of deep psychological research and mountains of carefully-compiled product data, the user experience is enjoyable and straightforward, ideal for first-time camera buyers or shoppers who simply don’t know where to start.

“The great thing about the Cameta Matchmaker,” says Kyle Harris, Lela’s President, “is that so much product information is concentrated into a simple, 60-second quiz that works for anyone. You can be a professional photographer or a total novice, and Cameta’s Matchmaker will help you find a camera that’s right for you.”

Matchmaker is completely free to use, and is now available at http://www.cameta.com.

In addition, Cameta Camera is currently offering Matchmaker users a chance to win a new Nikon 1 J1 Digital Camera 2-Lens Kit. Anyone who tries Matchmaker and registers their email address is automatically entered into the sweepstakes. For more information about the Matchmaker sweepstakes, please see the Official Rules.
________________________________________________________________________________

About Cameta Camera

Cameta Camera is a leading retailer of digital cameras and accessories, and an Authorized USA Dealer of all major brands of photography equipment. Based in Amityville, New York, Cameta has been committed to providing excellent product selection, low prices and exceptional customer service since 1983.

About Lela

Lela (http://www.lelaknows.com) is the first online shopping assistant that matches people to products using a unique and intuitive technology platform. Lela’s Intelligent MatchTM analyzes a shopper’s personality from a short quiz to discover tastes, lifestyle, values and budget. The Intelligent MatchTM then custom curates a product listing with individualized ratings. The result is a truly meaningful shopping experience.

Contact Information
Mike Mazal
Cameta Camera
http://www.cameta.com/ 
631-389-2135		 Richard Schmitz
Lela
http://www.lelaknows.com 
646-790-1205

 

Unleash your camera’s inner Hulk with a free hack to the firmware

Posted on by

By Les Shu  —   

Last year, two Canadian teenagers, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, successfully sent a Lego mini figure up into space using a weather balloon as the vehicle. To document the event from liftoff to crash-land, they rigged a basic Canon point-and-shoot camera to continuously snap photos. While it sounds like a complicated science project, it’s actually something many have successfully accomplished (Ho and Muhammad just made theirs unique by sending the little Lego guy with it and, oh, they’re teens). And hacking the camera might actually be the easy part, thanks to an open-source firmware update.

While cameras are often already loaded with features, software-based hacks can add new shooting capabilities not mentioned in the instruction manual. If the inner MacGyver in you is up for some tinkering – and you happen to own a Canon camera, in particular – here are some hacks that will unlock your camera’s hidden potential and add extra value. (Set aside a weekend to study up on the guides before you attemp

Full article at source>