OrCam Technologies has created a wearable, digital personal assistant device, called Casie, which can be clipped onto a shirt or worn as a medallion on a necklace. The USB-sized device, which will soon go through testing, contains a 5-megapixel camera and microphone, which can record a user’s surroundings and connect with the Casie app on a user’s phone. The app can then pair its recordings with data from the Internet to help the user identify and analyze places and people, such as a LinkedIn connection. Continue reading Casie is a New Digital Personal Assistant That You Can Wear

On July 12, GoPro will debut Hero4 Session, its latest action-video camera, priced at $399 and featuring a dramatically different form factor: a 1.5-inch cube that weighs only 2.6 ounces, with one button for on and off. In addition, GoPro founder Nick Woodman has announced the company’s expansion into virtual reality with a 16-camera array for an as-of-yet undisclosed price, to debut in August. Scheduled for next year, GoPro also plans to launch a quadcopter drone with built-in GoPro camera. Continue reading GoPro Unveils Smaller Hero Camera, Plans for VR and Drone

Sphericam 2 is a 4K spherical camera launched recently as a Kickstarter project with the intent of providing photographers, cinematographers and consumers with a means of easily capturing high-quality 360-degree video. The developers behind Sphericam see the camera is an ideal solution for producing content for VR hardware including Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. The camera features six built-in 4K lenses and records 360-degree video at 60fps. With 23 days to go in the campaign, the project has already exceeded its $150,000 goal. Continue reading New 4K 360-Degree Camera is Designed for Virtual Reality

As part of its larger effort to become a lifestyle media brand, GoPro is looking to cloud services as an alternative for the increasing amount of content that ends up stuck on SD cards. GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman wants to make it easier for users to instantly share photos and video. Although still in early development, the approach would involve uploading footage to a cloud service while the camera charges, where it could be immediately shared or edited. This would eliminate the step of transferring footage from an SD card to editing software. Continue reading GoPro Exec Aims to Connect Action Cameras to Cloud Service

Qualcomm announced that its Snapdragon 810 CPU and Adreno 430 GPU will power Google’s next generation Project Tango smartphone, coming out in the third quarter of 2015. The new phone promises to offer the same capabilities of the Nvidia-powered Project Tango tablet, but in a smaller form factor. “We’re excited to work together with Google and Android developers to help deliver new, innovative visual experiences using depth-sensing technology on mobile devices,” said Raj Talluri, SVP of product management, Qualcomm. Continue reading Qualcomm Tech to Power Next-Gen Project Tango Smartphone

San Francisco-based VideoStitch is at the NAB Show in Las Vegas this week demonstrating its post-production and live streaming software for virtual reality and 360-degree video. The company has algorithms for live streaming and batch multi-camera VR rig stitching. Its software runs on Nvidia cards that work on both Macs and PCs. VideoStitch’s solution is being used by more than 1,000 production teams creating VR experiences for clients including Red Bull, Facebook, BAE Systems, ESPN, and Legendary Pictures. Continue reading NAB 2015: VideoStitch Demos Solutions for Live VR Production

“Game of Thrones” fans have found a new way to pirate HBO’s hit show: live streaming through Twitter’s Periscope app. The Australian site Mumbrella reported that several Periscope users were broadcasting the “Game of Thrones” Season 5 premiere, and HBO issued take-down notices. Periscope, which has an entire team dedicated to reviewing material, issued a statement saying it explicitly prohibits piracy and it can remove content and shut down user accounts. Continue reading Fans Used Periscope to Live Stream ‘Game of Thrones’ Illegally

GoPro is the go-to camera for shooting low-cost VR experiences. Two vendors at the NAB Show are showing multi-camera GoPro mounts designed for a variety of VR shooting and display situations. There are different mounts for 2D and 3D capture, for 360 circle vision versus dome versus full spherical capture, and for high-resolution close-ups versus wide vista shots. 360Heros and Freedom360 both offer sealed rigs for underwater shooting down to 30 meters — as well as stitching and other post-production software and support with their mounts. Continue reading NAB 2015: 360Heros and Freedom360 Unveil New GoPro Mounts

Canon has released one of the first “convergence” cameras that can take both high resolution photos and videos. The XC10 can take 12 megapixel stills or 4K video with a one-inch CMOS sensor. The XC10 can also shoot video in 1080p and 8MP still photos can be taken from the video. The photos and video save to an internal CFast card, and the built-in Wi-Fi makes it easy to get photos off the device. Canon is marketing the product to journalists and other multimedia professionals who need different types of media. Continue reading Canon’s New XC10 Camera Shoots Still Photos and 4K Video

During last week’s New York International Auto Show, visitors witnessed the promising early developments of self-driving vehicles demonstrated by a number of car companies. While a fully capable self-driving car may be years away from mainstream deployment, self-driving features that exist today impressed the crowds. Companies including Volvo, Cadillac and Audi unveiled an array of autopilot features that can control a car’s speed, brakes and steering while traveling up to 40 mph.  Continue reading Array of Self-Driving Features Impress at New York Auto Show

Samsung launched its new line of super high resolution SUHD 4K TVs, but interested consumers will have to pay a premium for the superior picture quality and additional features. All of the SUHD TVs have four times the amount of pixels than the average 1080p television set. The highest-end model also has an LED backlight system, a curved screen, and a built-in camera for hand motion controls. The new SUHD TVs will start shipping this month, with the high-end models reaching $10,000. Continue reading Samsung SUHD TVs Feature Stunning Image Quality, High Prices

A group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a method to accurately provide measurements for 3D objects using mobile phones. The team members discovered that they could simply make use of the inertial measurement units (IMU) installed and already used in smartphones to change the phone’s view from portrait to landscape. Some foresee this technology being especially groundbreaking in the virtual shopping space and development of self-driving cars.  Continue reading Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop New 3D Measurement Tool

Apple has developed a new iPhone camera with a light splitting cube that can more accurately display colors and produce sharp images even in low-light situations. The tiny digital camera uses three sensors and a light-splitting cube to differentiate between three different color components, creating a sharp and colorful image from all three. This light-splitting technology is similar to the approach used in high quality cameras from companies such as Canon, Panasonic and others. Continue reading Apple Patents Light-Splitting Camera Tech for Color Accuracy

At this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Sony announced that its PlayStation-powered Project Morpheus VR headset has some new specs. The screen resolution has been improved to 1,920 x RGB x 1,080 and its refresh rate has been doubled to 120Hz. Project Morpheus now features a new 5.7-inch screen with nearly 100-degree field of view, and touts lower latency, at under 18 milliseconds. While no price has been revealed, the company says it plans to launch the device by the first half of next year. Continue reading Project Morpheus Gets Bigger Screen and Impressive New Specs

On February 25, ABC will air an episode of “Modern Family” called “Connection Lost” that addresses how parents attempt to communicate with their disinterested children via technology. The production marks a first in that it was shot almost exclusively on mobile devices, including Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. During the episode, the TV screen will often resemble character Claire Dunphy’s MacBook screen featuring a mock-up of Apple’s OS X Yosemite (the show was produced in October when Yosemite was still in beta). Continue reading ABC to Broadcast Sitcom Episode Shot on iPhones and iPads