The FaceID system can store digital profiles for up to 500 unique faces, and use those to validate the identity of those who stare into its camera lenses. A pair of digitial cameras allows the FaceID system to recreate a 3-dimensional image of the individual’s face, and runs it through a face detection algorithm to match their face to its internal database. The 3-D images also prevent people from hacking in by just holding up a photo. It’s even smart enough to cope with irregularities in lighting conditions, and can even work in the dark.

Designed as both a replacement for timecard systems and a door security system, the FaceID claims a less than 0.0001% margin for error in its recognition algorithm. Not too shabby. With one of these in place, you won’t be able to hand your timecard to another employee to punch in for you ever again. Unless you cut their head off and carry it around with you, I suppose.

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Keep in mind that the FaceID system doesn’t actually come with an electronic door lock, but provides a standard Wiegand interface for controlling security systems. You can find the FaceID system over at ChinaVasion for $447 (USD).

I wonder if thing can detect if you’re a Replicant or not?

Those concerned with the smooth aesthetic of the DSi need not apply, either. But if you can get past the look of your system, this accessory is sure to improve the look of your pictures. For $24.99, DSi owners can add an 8x zoom lens to this case (or detach it and just use the case). Nyko is promoting the attachment as perfect for social networking enthusiasts, but the case has a certain amount of spy-tech style, too. Useful… if you can fit it into your pocket!

[via Joystiq]

This cheery pink digital camcorder is perfect for girls (and very confident men) who want to shoot video and are sick of the same old, same old. Just like the big boys, the pink HD cam can shoot 720p high-definition video at up to 30 fps in H.264 format. See, these girls are definitely stoked about those stats…

Girl on right: “Hey, did you know my HD digi-cam can shoot digital video at 1280×720 resolution with a frame rate of 30 frames-per-second and encodes its data using a Quicktime H.264 codec?” Girl on left: “Shut up and take my picture already! Can’t you see I was busy listening to some tunes in Ogg Vorbis format!”

The pink cam has even got a pair of SD slots, each of which can hold 16GB of memory, so you can store up to 32GB of digital video if you load up both slots. In addition to shooting video, the pink cam will take still photos at up to 5-megapixel resolution. Video is displayed on the camera’s large 3-inch touchscreen display. And it’s pink – with ruby-colored sparklies!

Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but you can check back over on Chinavasion for more information. Think pink!

That’s right, this ordinary looking Casio LCD desktop calculator has been retrofitted to conceal a tiny little video camera, perfect for snooping on your unsuspecting office buddies in between math equations.

From the product description, it sounds like its got a built in digital video and audio recorder, and runs on a 9-volt battery, so it’s completely self-contained. Although I am confused by the part where it says that it’s also a wireless camera with a built in transmitter and a remote video receiver. Maybe it can send an analog feed in real-time, and then store video on the internal memory. Each one comes with 8GB of storage and can record videos at up to 628×582 pixels (what a strange resolution). Plus it doesn’t need much light to operate – just 3 Lux. Plus, it’s still a fully-functional calculator, which should make it look even less suspicious to casual observers.

The calculator spy cam is available over at ChinaGrabber for $78.99 (USD). But there’s also a guy over on eBay with what appear to be exactly the same calcucameras for a few bucks less. But in this case, the resolutions listed seem to make more sense, they mention no wireless connectivity and a built-in rechargeable battery instead of a 9-volt. Who knows which product listing is more accurate? I’m laying odds on the eBay option. That said, as is always the case with these odd little gadgets from China, caveat emptor, YMMV and all that jazz.

The Vicon Revue was originally called SenseCam. Some of you may have heard of SenseCam before; it was developed by Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. Basically it’s a low-res fish eye camera, about the same size as a Post-it notepad, that is worn on a cord around the neck. It automatically takes pictures based on two things: a preset time interval, even as short as once every 5 seconds, and various stimuli, like changes in light or temperature. So when you enter a room for example, the difference in brightness will prompt the camera to snap a picture. Even if you just moved from your living room to the garage. Or if you turn off the lights. Or if you repeatedly cover and expose the light sensor.

It was originally intended for people suffering from Alzheimer’s and other memory-debilitating conditions. Tests have shown that “reviewing SenseCam photos of a significant event every two days for three weeks, the person could remember it substantially better, even after months of not looking at the photos, compared with events that were not reviewed this way or were recorded only in a written diary.” The Vicon Revue will be marketed to researchers at first; a consumer version will follow next year. Here’s a sample shot from the SenseCam:

Can you see it now? People uploading shit like this with their tweets. “OMG I think I saw Steve Jobs is this him <Vicon Revue pic>” “OMG my tummy got 3 mm bigger <Vicon Revue before & after pics>” “OMG!!!! My Vicon took pictures of a cloud shaped like a penis roflcopter I didn’t even see it lololololol <17 Vicon Revue pics of a cloud that looks like anything but a penis>”

The SenseCam takes pictures at 640×480. It has 1GB of internal flash memory, capable of storing more than 30,000 of the low-res pictures. I don’t know if there will be changes in specs, if any, on the Vicon Revue. I think the reason why it’s so expensive despite it’s mediocre imaging capabilities is the myriad of built-in sensors: light-intensity and light-color sensors, a passive infrared (body heat) detector, a temperature sensor, and a multiple-axis accelerometer.

The Vicon Revue that will be sold to researchers will sell for £500 (approx. $820 USD). I’m guessing the consumer version of Vicon Revue will be a bit cheaper, and have at least double the memory. If all goes well, the internet will be flooded with billions of mundane fisheye pics in 2010.

[via New Scientist & Microsoft Research]

The Satio has a gorgeous widescreen (16:9) 3.5-inch touchscreen interface, with a super-sharp, auto-rotating 640×360 display. It also runs on the Symbian OS platform, which means there are tons of applications you can download and run on the handset. And if you’re into mobile photography, you’ll really love this. The Satio has an astounding 12.1-megapixel digital camera with 12x digital zoom. The camera offers face and smile recognition (I want a camera with frown recognition!), touch-screen focus capability, and a bright Xenon flash. It even can Geo-tag your photos and upload them directly to Picasa. This is definitely way more camera than you’re used to finding in a phone.

Did I happen to mention that the Satio is a full 3G phone, with support for GSM GPRS/EDGE and UMTS HSDPA networks? Plus it’s got built-in WiFi, Bluetooth and a GPS too. Yep, just like the iPhone, the Satio comes with Google Maps – connected to the phone’s A-GPS module. Oh yea, there’s also an FM Radio with RDS track information. This jack-of-all-trades can even play Java games and ships with mobile versions of Facebook and YouTube too. Sweet.

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The Satio comes silver and “bordeaux” case colors, and will start to ship on October 13 in the UK. No word yet on a North American release. UK readers can order the Saito from the Sony Ericsson Store.

[Full Satio Specifications]

The image above is an actual result from Photosketch. This shit is magical. The crucial thing about Photosketch of course is the algorithm that selects the images that best fit a given sketch. Instead of pretending to understand these things, I’ll just let Tao Chen, one of the students behind the program, explain it to you:

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Photosketch is so awesome that the webpage it was on had to be taken down, most likely due to the massive hits that it got. Although personally I think that the program can still be improved – for example, it seems that you can’t look for a specific entity, say “Cheney” to go along with “rifle” and “face” – this is definitely truly really mind blowing technology. Nerd Powah!

[via The Presurfer]

These amazing photographs were made by strapping a colored LED to the top of Roomba vacuums and then capturing extra-long exposure photos (known as “light paintings”). It’s sort of like looking at a neon Spirograph and spider web rolled into one. I’ve posted a few of my favorites in the gallery below…

You can check out the complete archive of Roomba light art over at the Roomba Art Flickr pool. My Hoover definitely can’t do this.

[via New World Geek via Make:]

I won’t tell you how far to jump in because you really should watch the whole thing. Wait for it. Wait for it…

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[via UFunk]

Here’s some sexy specs for audiophiles: the microphone is a condenser with a wide frequency response, from 35 Hz to 20 kHz, and a 16-bit audio sample rate of 44.1 kHz. Yeah. Awesome. I don’t know what we’re talking about.

Non-techie users should also consider the Eyeball because it’s easy to install – it works out of the box with both Mac and Windows systems, no drivers needed. The Eyeball’s stand also doubles as its compartment, so it’s quite portable as well. Here’s Mark from Coolest Gadgets‘ review of the Eyeball, taken using the Eyeball itself.

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Convinced yet? You can get the Eyeball for $140 (USD) (or less; I could have bought it for $70 as of this writing, just click “add to cart” to see the discount) at Amazon.

The PenCam trio HD also has 4 GB of memory built-in. And as you can (barely) see the camera has a 1.1 inch OLED screen, so you can squint til you go blind while you’re shooting in HD. But Aiptek also considered the sane options – you can connect the Pencam trio HD to an HDTV or upload your videos to YouTube using its Windows-only software.

No word yet on price or availability, but based on the first image, the screen is about twice as large as the camera’s hole, and based on the image above right, that’s a freakin’ small screen.

[via popgadget]

Stanford University News runs down the hardware of the open source camera: “…the motherboard, per se, is a Texas Instruments ’system on a chip’ running Linux with image and general processors and a small LCD screen. The imaging chip is taken from a Nokia N95 cell phone, and the lenses are off-the-shelf Canon lenses, but they are combined with actuators to give the camera its fine-tuned software control. The body is custom made at Stanford.”

Computer science graduate student Andrew Adams – pictured above with Levoy – wants digital camera users to be able to download applications for their cameras, in the same way that we download programs that extend or improve our PCs. Levoy’s team hopes to have the Frankencamera’s operating system released publicly by next year for some crowd-sourcing action.

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[via PhysOrg]

Zoom in all you want–the naughty bits are all on the blurry side.

The Suicide Girls have long been known for going where traditional erotica does not–into the land of tattoos, little square glasses, and geekery, and now they’re using the handheld game system’s cameras for a nude shoot that shows off the system’s photo software (oh, and boobs–they’re showing those off, too). As though the Nintendo handhelds didn’t already sell like crazy.

[via Tiny Cartridge]

DishPointer’s next-generation software uses augmented reality technology to overlay the exact position of the satellites on the live video from your iPhone. The application takes full advantage of the iPhone 3GS built-in compass, GPS, and accelerometer to show you the locations of the satellites in the sky. Check out the video below to see a preview of the application in action:

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You’ll have no excuse for those pesky tree branches or leaves getting in the way of your mega 5-LNB high-def dish with this app in hand. And if you’re a satellite dish installer, you’ll definitely want this in your bag of tricks when it’s released.

DishPointer hasn’t revealed when the new augmented reality app will hit, but says it should coincide with the release of iPhone OS 3.1 (rumored to be in September). For now, you can check out DishPointer’s other satellite pointing apps here.

Well now you can, thanks to this little bit of modern technology from Korea’s Selfic Technologies.The Selfic Cube 7100 mounts on the windshield or dashboard of your car, and captures your every move on a built in digital video recorder.

The tiny black box camera (appx. 1″ x 1″ x 2″) features a 360-degree swivel mount and can record each of your driving sessions, automatically tracking date and time stamps, as well as the speed of your vehicle, your exact GPS coordinates and any shock due to an impact. And it can also record audio, so if you decide to turn the camera on yourself and your passengers and shoot your own episode of Taxicab Confessions, you can do that too.

The Selfic Cube can capture video at 640×480 resolution at 30fps, and stores all of its images and data on either a micro SD (2GB) or micro SDHC card (up to 8GB). Here’s a little bit of sample video shot with the Selfic that I found over on YouTube. Not exactly thrilling footage, but it sure would come in handy if you got broad-sided by a moose.

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Of course if you get hit from behind, you’d better hope you bought a second one of these for the rear window. At this point the Selfic Cube 7100 is only available in Korea, but if you’re willing to deal with the translation and currency challenges you might be able to grab one over at the Early Adopter Shop for 207,000 South Korean Won (appx. $167 USD).