Technabob » digital video

Sharp Creates Awesome Video Room for Theme Park

Shane McGlaun — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:05:22 +0000

The first time I ever saw a 3D movie was at a theme park. Each time we go to the beach we end up having to take the kids over to the IMAX theater that is nearby too so we can see something on the giant screen. The larger the screen you use to watch the video, the more immersed you become. Sharp has created an awesome video screen room that may be the most immersive video attraction ever.

The attraction is called the 5D Miracle Tour, and its space is being constructed for a theme park in Japan called Huis Ten Bosch Co. Ltd. The video room opens on April 29, 2011 and will have a total of 156 massive 60-inch Sharp PN-V601 LCD panels inside it. The front wall, ceiling, and floor each get 36 of the screens and the wide walls each get 24 screens.

The overall effect of all the screens makes for a video wall of 200-300 inches surrounding the viewer. I’m not sure what the deal with seams is though. The rendering clearly shows seams and the press release says that the display is seamless.

[Sharp via Akihabara News]

Sanyo Waterproof Camcorder Can Record Full HD Underwater

Shane McGlaun — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:10:45 +0000

With summer here, each time we go to the lake or the pool I worry that my camera and camcorder will get wet and ruined. It’s not just the water at the pool or lake I worry about, it’s the kids spilling their drinks on the camera too. It’s for situations such as these that Sanyo has released a new camcorder that will stop those worries of running your camera near water.

The new camcorder is called the Sanyo Xacti DMX-CA100 and it is the world’s first full 1080p Full HD waterproof camcorder. The thing isn’t simply splash resistant, it can actually be used underwater to record 1080p video at up to 60fps.

The camera can also shoot still images at 14MP resolutions and can shoot bursts at seven frames per second for up to 22 photos in 2MP mode. The camcorder will ship in June in black, yellow, and pink colors. It should hit stores late this June, but pricing hasn’t been announced yet.

Nec Program Identifies Illegally Copied Videos: Your Move, Pirates

Lambert Varias — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:37:20 +0000

Japanese IT company NEC claims they have developed “a video content identification technology that detects illegal copies of video content uploaded to the Internet in a matter of seconds.” I’m not entirely sure how this works, so bear with me on this one. According to the company’s press release, the software tags each frame of an original video. It can then be used to scan another video, get its own “video signature” and compare it with the original video’s signature.

NEC claims that their technology has an astounding 96% average detection rate, and can even detect 2-second clips, yet generates a relatively small amount of data and can be operated by a lowly 3GHz single-core-equipped PC . From what I understand the program can’t snuff out torrents; I think it’s primarily aimed at videos hosted online in sites like YouTube or Megavideo. Check out NEC’s press release at Akihabara News. If you can explain in simple terms how the app works and what this means in the larger scheme of things, feel free to drop us a line (or ten) in the comments.

[Picture above contains original art by Roboworks]

Sony Bloggie HD Cameras: Dumb Name, Great 1080p Picture

Technabob — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:15:04 +0000

I guess I’ve heard worse names for products than this one, but if you can look past the idiotic name of the new Sony Bloggie line of digital MP4 cameras, you’ll actually find a very nice bit of technology for the price.

The Sony Bloggie series offers two new compact digital camcorders, each capable of grabbing gorgeous 1080p video at 30fps, and can also shoot 5-megapixel stills. The MHS-CM5 (MSRP $200 USD) features a 5x optical zoom lens and a pistol grip body with a flip out 2.5″ LCD viewfinder.

The MHS-PM5 (MSRP $170) forgoes the optical zoom, and instead provides 4x digital zoom and a fixed 2.4″ viewfinder. Personall, I’d spend the extra 30 bucks for the real zoom lens. However, the cheaper model sports a funky 270-degree reversable lens that lets you shoot yourself, as well as a $189 version which includes a lens add-on that lets you shoot 360-degree panoramic videos and bundles a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card.

Both Bloggie cams are available now over at the Sony Store, with the MHS-CM5 shipping now, and the MHS-PM5 models shipping early in February.

Watch Shoots High-Def Video (Not Really)

Technabob — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:42:08 +0000

While a number of wristwatches have been released with tiny video cameras in them, this is the first one I’ve heard of that’s supposed to capture high-definition footage. And I emphasize – supposed to.

JTT’s WACAHD8GB wristwatch looks like an ordinary analog sports watch, but hiding beneath its inconspicuous cover is a digital camera, spec’d to shoot 1280 x 960 resolution at 30fps, somewhere between 720p and 1080i resolution. That’s 4-times the resolution of most of the crummy VGA video cameras crammed into watches so far. Unfortunately from the looks of these sample videos (here and here), I’m not bullish on those resolution claims.

In addition to theoretically shooting HD video, the watch is supposed to capture still images at 3264 x 2448 resolution, which works out to be just under 8 megapixels.

But from the looks of these terribly blurry sample images (1, 2, 3) I’d say the resolution is about as good as the first webcam I ever owned. It’s almost like the JPEG compression is dialed down to the minimum quality, or more likely they’re just interpolating “HD” resolution from a lower res, like 640 x 480 or worse.

While the stats surely sound impressive, I’m none too impressed with the sample pics and vids. If you really want to take a gamble on one of these, you can find the WACAHD8GB over at the JTT Online Shop for ¥15,800 (appx. $150 USD). And if you’re really adventurous, check out their PENCAHD8GB HD pen camera…

No thanks.
[via Le Journal du Geek]

Record Video Directly Into Your iPod

Technabob — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 19:15:46 +0000

At just under $200, the iLuv i180WHT Video System allows you to record VGA quality (640×480) video directly into your iPod.

Simply feed in your camcorder or other video source via Composite or S-Video and RCA inputs for audio. The i180WHT provides adjustments for recording quality and length, then encodes the video into MPEG-4 format. The system supports 5th gen (30gb / 60gb) and just announced, 5.5th gen (30gb / 80gb) iPods with video capabilities.