The future of cameras seem to be heading to is smaller, more portable, more disposable and mirrorless (DSLRs have a mirror). When Nokia’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki told 2010 that Cell Phone Cameras Will Replace DSLRs, I could not believe that on time. But it really seems to become more and more to truth in 2014: Nowadays you can take professional level (“good enough photos”) using consumer level cameras and smart phones. Technical quality is good enough for majority. There is going on a rampant replacement of point and shoot cameras of all flavors and varieties with smart phones and their built in cameras. Now the market is being effectively gutted. Gone. Non-existent. Same thing is happening to video as well.
Part of the technical race came to a (maybe temporary) end: “How can I match and exceed the quality of conventional metrics that we used to get from medium format film.” There’s nothing else pressing to solve, technically. Many photographers are fully equipped but uninspired to move forward. We have have set down for “good enough.” The engineering idea is that we’ve hit the sweet spot and to go for a Six Sigma improvement would be costly and unnecessary.
DSLR sales were down in 2013, worldwide, by 18.5% according to CIPA. The total decline in the entire dedicated camera market is closer to 43.5%. The decline will continue. Credit Suisse prediction: “Only those who have a strong brand and are competitive on price will last – and only Canon, Nikon and Sony fullfil that criteria”. Mirrorless cameras are not a big market: According to CIPA is the total sales of mirrorless system cameras in N. America was slightly fewer than 39,000 units. Total.
The challenge will be: How do you bridge that gap between high photo-capture quality and high-quality camera devices and the cloud where every amateur photographer’s images live? The company which has the most innovative post-processing, easy to share photos feature set wins! The future of photography is same as future in pretty much everything: software and connectivity. Camera manufacturers have been slow on those: we are just now seeing cameras with full operating systems like Android The advantages to smart phones are size, constant (annoyingly constant) access, multi-task tool set, and the ability to send your images, electronically, to an audience just about anywhere in the world.
Several smartphone makers have clear strategies to take photography to extremes: 40 megapixel camera is already on the market and several manufacturers are playing with re-focus after shooting options.
Consumer video device trend is that separate classic video cameras have pretty much faded from market. New smart phones have high definition video cameras in them, so for most users there is no need for separate video camera. For special uses there are small “action” video cameras that are so tiny that you can place them almost anywhere and they can take some beating while you perform your extreme sports. If the video quality of those do not suffice, many people use their DSLR to shoot higher quality high definition video. For professional video production there is still some market left for professional and prosumer video cameras.
The world seems to be heading to situation where separate DSLRs and separate video cameras will be more like high fidelity audio, which used to be common selling point in 1970s, 80s and early 90s, but now only some geeks care about audio quality. This will more or less happen to photographs and video.
Connected TV technologies get more widely used and the content earlier viewable only on TV can be now seen on many other screens. Your smartphone is the screen in your pocket. Your computer is the screen on your desk. Your tablet is a screen for the couch. This development is far from ready. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable.
Video streaming has really become mainstream as Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Because of the rise in video services like Netflix and YouTube, peer-to-peer file-sharing has dropped (meaning less piracy of movies and TV series). Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime hours in September — well ahead of any other streaming service. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. It was introduced in the 2013, and the manufacturers start to push it more in 204 because all LCD makers are looking to move their business models on from cheap mass production to higher-margin, premium offerings. They try to innovate and secure their future viability by selling fewer, but more profitable displays. On this road giant curved TVs is gaining ground: LG announces that it will present the “world’s first ” 105-inch curved ultra-hd-TV in January in Las Vegas at CES. Almost at the same time , however, Samsung also announced the proposal at CES “the world’s first and curved” 105-inch ultra HD television.. TV screens are in fact higher resolution the basic 4k level of ultra hd: Samsung and LG screens resolution is 5120 × 2160 pixels in the image (11 megapixels).
4K resolution ecosystem will get more ready for use. Netflix is testing out 4K video streaming and Netflix’s House of Cards was shot in 4K. Amazon Studios also just recently announced that it will shoot all of its 2014 shows in that format as well.
4K and 4K streaming are definitely coming in 2014 regardless of how many people can actually view it. 4K will still require a lot of work “with the compression and decode capability” to be ready for mainstream use. There are a great many things that need to happen before 4K really becomes a reality or needs to do so.
PC hardware with 4G capable graphics cards is already available, so decoding the stream is not a problem. The biggest issue is that the market penetration of 4K-capable televisions needs to grow, but to that happen the prices must drop to ranges for the average consumer. Many users have already fast enough fixed broadband connection, but can the networks handle peak usage 4K streaming? According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it won’t require more than a stable 15 Mbps to stream 4K.
Extreme overkill resolution will also push to tablet and smart phone markets. There are already smart phones with full HD resolution. In high-end smartphones we may be moving into the overkill zone with extreme resolution that is higher than you can see on small screen: some makers have already demonstrated displays with twice the performance of 1080-progressive. Samsung is planned to release devices with 4k or UHD resolutions. As we have seen in many high tech gadget markets earlier it is a very short journey to copycat behavior. And we will see also see smart phones that can shoot 4K video.
For a long time music has been listened mainly with small portable MP3 player and such, which for most users provide “good enough” audio quality. The market had already shifted from separate MP3 players to the same functionality included to other devices (smart phones and tablets), so sales of music players sales have plummeted in year 2013 as much as as one-third. Separate music players mostly only used for listening music during fitness hobby, and growing popularity of fitness hobby is full of players saved the market from total collapse. Uncompressed music player to appreciate the need of a decent storage capacity, so some hifi people buy some high-end separate players, but that’s a small market.
Apple’s iPod continues to lead an ever-shrinking market of portable media players with a staggering 72 percent of the market for standalone music players. Apple has never been afraid of reducing demand for one of its devices by creating demand for another, in this case iPhone. The future of separate music players looks bleak.
Smartphones have taken the music player market. The growing popularity of smart phones and music streaming services will rise in the future to eat even music players sales. If smart watch will become a hit, the music player may be lost in exercisers shopping list.
1,214 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pitivi Video Editor Surpasses 50% Crowdfunding Goal, Releases Version 0.94
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/11/10/2045244/pitivi-video-editor-surpasses-50-crowdfunding-goal-releases-version-094
With the latest developments, Pitivi is proving to truly be a promising libre video editor for GNU distributions as well as a serious contender for bringing libre video production up to par with its proprietary counterparts. Since launching a beautifully well-organized crowdfunding campaign (as covered here previously), the team has raised over half of their 35,000 € goal to pay for full-time development and has entered “beta” status for version 1.0. They’ve released two versions, 0.94 (release notes) being the most recent, which have brought full MPEG-TS/AVCHD suppor
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pitivi
http://www.pitivi.org/
Pitivi pronounciation is a Free video editor with a beautiful and intuitive user interface, a clean codebase and a fantastic community.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Seeing The World Through Depth Sensing Cameras
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/10/seeing-the-world-through-depth-sensing-cameras/
The Oculus Rift and all the other 3D video goggle solutions out there are great if you want to explore virtual worlds with stereoscopic vision, but until now we haven’t seen anyone exploring real life with digital stereoscopic viewers. [pabr] combined the Kinect-like sensor in an ASUS Xtion with a smartphone in a Google Cardboard-like setup for 3D views the human eye can’t naturally experience like a third-person view, a radar-like display, and seeing what the world would look like with your eyes 20 inches apar
[pabr] is using an ASUS Xtion depth sensor connected to a Galaxy SIII via the USB OTG port. With a little bit of code, the output from the depth sensor can be pushed to the phone’s display.
Seeing the world through a depth-sensing camera
http://www.pabr.org/depthvision/depthvision.en.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spotify has paid music industry $2B to date, $1B since last year; has 12.5M paying subscribers; top artists to exceed $6M/year in payments — $2 Billion and Counting — A blog post written by CEO Daniel Ek (@eldsja
$2 Billion and Counting
November 11th, 2014 14:00 by The Spotify Team
- A blog post written by Daniel Ek (@eldsjal)
https://news.spotify.com/se/2014/11/11/2-billion-and-counting/
Taylor Swift is absolutely right: music is art, art has real value, and artists deserve to be paid for it. We started Spotify because we love music and piracy was killing it. So all the talk swirling around lately about how Spotify is making money on the backs of artists upsets me big time. Our whole reason for existence is to help fans find music and help artists connect with fans through a platform that protects them from piracy and pays them for their amazing work.
Taylor Swift is right about music, wrong about Spotify, says CEO Ek
http://www.cnet.com/news/taylor-swift-is-right-about-music-wrong-about-spotify-ceo-ek/
Spotify’s Daniel Ek says the world’s top subscription streaming-music service added 2.5 million paying members in fewer than six months and has returned a total of $2 billion to the music industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Music Download Sales Miraculously Growing Despite Their Death Everywhere Else
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/11/google-music-sales-and-subscribers-up/
We’re in a music sales apocolypse while streaming grows, so it’s no surprise Google Music‘s on-demand streaming service subscriber numbers are growing. But somehow, Google’s download sales are growing too, Google’s VP of Global Music Partnerships Zehavah Levine said today at the SF MusicTech conference. She refused to reveal any concrete subscriber numbers when I asked, but said “Not only are our subscribers growing but our download numbers are growing despite the industry trend.” That trend saw digital track sales down 13% in the first half of 2014 compared to the first half of 2013.
Together, Levine says “Google Play music generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year for the music industry.” But the division’s focus right now is on growing its subscriber count because she says streaming only becomes profitable “at scale”.
But why would Google operate a music store and streaming service simulataneously? “I do not believe that subscription services cannabilize sales.” She then relayed a very fascinating fact to prove it. “We launched our store a year and a half before our subscription service. if you look at our subscribers who all came after our store, more of our subscribers buy music after becoming a subscriber than stopped buying music after becoming a subscriber.” She concludes, “We’re not seeing cannabilization.”
That’s a controversial perspective Taylor Swift might want to hear, as she created a huge hubbub in the music business after pulling her music from Spotify citing shrimpy royalties. Spotify’s Daniel Ek rebuked her argument today saying streaming royalties can be big for top artists, and the company has paid out $2 billion to date, and royalties will grow if artists get on board and paid subscribership grows.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters TV aims to personalize news broadcasts
http://digiday.com/publishers/reuters-tv/
With Reuters TV, a smart video app for news junkies, Reuters is once again trying to establish itself as a consumer brand.
The news giant unveiled Reuters TV at a Monday night soiree in its Times Square headquarters. Scheduled to launch in January on iPhone and iPad, Reuters TV aims to generate a relevant viewing experience for each subscriber. An algorithm pulls from a well of videos produced specifically for Reuters TV, assembling them into a coherent news show that considers viewers’ location, usage data and available time as well as the editorial value of each story.
“It’s a reinvention of some of the fundamental aspects of TV news,” said Isaac Showman, managing director of Reuters TV. “We’re moving away from mass broadcasts to one that’s relevant for every single user.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
$400 Noise-Cancelling Headphones vs. $25 Earmuffs
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1324585&
I’ve tried using my MDR-NC500D digital noise-cancelling headphones from Sony. When I turn on the noise cancellation, however, although the rumble from the ground almost completely disappears, they have no effect whatsoever on the music. Much to my disgruntlement, in fact, the end result is to make the songs Gina is playing sound clearer and — paradoxically — louder.
After our most recent trip to Louisiana, I started cogitating furiously. There had to be some solution to this dilemma. Eventually, I came across a pair of 3M Peltor H10A Optime 105 Earmuffs from Amazon, which weigh in at 12.3 ounces, have an NRR (noise reduction rating) of 30dB, and are an absolute bargain at only ~$21. However, I actually ended up purchasing a pair of 3M Peltor X5A Earmuffs
These little rascals are a tad more expensive at $25.92, but their claim to fame is that they boast an NRR of 31dB. All I can say is that when it comes to my listening to Christian rock, every extra dB of noise reduction is worth its weight in gold.
Happily, I can easily wear my iPad earbuds under these ear muffs.
My next thought was to wonder how these two alternatives would compare in an airplane setting
Sad to relate, the results were a bit of a mixed bag as it were.
The X54 Earmuffs do an outstanding job of removing the higher frequencies from the background noise, including neighbors talking to you, babies wailing, and the pilot announcing
On the other hand, these earmuffs don’t manage to remove all of the low-frequency noise from the engines.
By comparison, the noise-cancelling headphones perform magnificently with regard to removing the low-frequency engine noise, but they do tend to leave some of the higher frequency noise.
In the end I opted for my noise-cancelling headphones because they are lighter and more stylish and — all other things being equal — I have to justify buying them to myself. Having said this, if someone were to ask me to advise them whether to spend $400 on noise cancelling headphones versus $25 on a pair of earmuffs, I think I have to say that the earmuffs would win the day.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An External Autofocus for DSLRs
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/12/an-external-autofocus-for-dslrs/
Most modern DSLR cameras support shooting full HD video, which makes them a great cheap option for video production. However, if you’ve ever used a DSLR for video, you’ve probably ran into some limitations, including sluggish autofocus.
Sensopoda tackles this issue by adding an external autofocus to your DSLR. With the camera in manual focus mode, the device drives the focus ring on the lens. This allows for custom focus control code to be implemented on an external controller.
The design is interesting because it is rather universal; it can be adapted to run on pretty much any DSLR.
Sensopoda
http://digitalmedia-bremen.de/de/sensopoda
Tomi Engdahl says:
Protocol Snooping Digital Audio
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/12/protocol-snooping-digital-audio/
More and more clubs are going digital. When you go out to hear a band, they’re plugging into an ADC (analog-to-digital converter) box on stage, and the digitized audio data is transmitted to the mixing console over Ethernet. This saves the venue having to run many audio cables over long distances, but it’s a lot harder to hack on. So [Michael] trained popular network analysis tools on his ProCo Momentum gear to see just what the data looks like.
[Michael]‘s writeup of the process is a little sparse, but he name-drops all the components you’d need to get the job done. First, he simply looks at the raw data using Wireshark. Once he figured out how the eight channels were split up, he used the command-line version (tshark) and a standard Unix command-line tool (cut) to pull the data apart. Now he’s got a text representation for eight channels of audio data.
Using xxd to convert the data from text to binary, he then played it using sox to see what it sounded like.
48KHz Adventures
http://blog.gmichael225.com/post/48khz-adventures
So, a couple of friends of mine have some ProCo Momentum boxes (they take XLR or TRS inputs and send them via Ethernet to boxes that convert them back to XLR outputs). They’re used for sending a whole bunch of audio signals from, say, the stage to a sound desk (and a few lines back the other way to the speakers).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony to Introduce Web-Based TV Service
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/business/media/sony-to-introduce-web-based-tv-service.html?_r=0
Sony is pressing play on a new web-based television service that represents an attempt to transform the way people watch based on its experience in gaming.
Called PlayStation Vue, the service initially will require a PlayStation gaming console and will offer a personalized, searchable approach to watching live and on-demand television that is delivered over an Internet connection. Sony plans to announce this subscription service on Thursday and will start testing it this month with a select group of viewers in New York. It will be offered in other cities in the first quarter of 2015.
Sony will introduce PlayStation Vue as a package of about 75 TV channels, a smaller version of a typical cable offering. Through deals with six television groups, the service will include the broadcast networks CBS, NBC and Fox in some regions, with dozens of popular cable networks such as USA, FX, Discovery, Bravo, MTV, Comedy Central and the Food Network.
“It looks very similar to your cable and satellite subscription, but they are innovating on the user experience,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taylor Swift’s Spotify Paycheck Mystery
http://time.com/3581487/taylor-swift-spotify-borchetta/
Spotify and the pop star’s record label provide new figures to defend themselves in the battle over profits from the streaming-music service
“Charles James: Beyond Fashion” Costume Institute Gala – Candids
More
Spotify CEO ‘Really Frustrated’ With Taylor Swift
Why Taylor Swift Will Lose Her Battle With Spotify
Why Only Taylor Swift Could Leave Spotify
Taylor Swift has been paid less than $500,000 in the past 12 months for domestic streaming of her songs, Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Taylor Swift’s record label, the independent Nashville-based Big Machine, told TIME Wednesday.
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His statement is the latest salvo in an increasingly heated disagreement between Swift and Spotify. The disagreement has sent ripples through the music industry, with the country’s most successful musician removing her work from an admired new online music model.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung unveils Project Beyond, a 3D-capturing camera for Gear VR
http://www.engadget.com/2014/11/12/samsung-project-beyond/
Samsung has just unveiled a sneak preview of a new camera called Project Beyond, which is a 3D-capturing 360-degree camera designed to capture videos and stream them on the Gear VR. Pranav Mistry, Samsung’s VP of Research, says that Beyond is a “new kind of camera that gives a new kind of immersive experience.” The camera (which apparently houses 16 full HD cameras) shows a 360-degree panoramic view and captures everything in 3D, collecting a gigapixel of 3D data every second. It promises high-speed connectivity, adaptive stitching, ultra wide-angle optics and stereoscopic depth. And, this isn’t just a concept. It’s actually a fully working device. This, Mistry says, is really important for Gear VR, as you can feel as if you’re “literally there.” You can also have it set up so that every Gear VR user that’s connected will be able to see the video stream, with “no lag whatsoever.” Samsung says that it’s “the world’s first true 3D 360 degree camera” and captures and streams “omniview videos in stunning high-resolution 3D.” We’re still finding out more about this, but until then, here’s the product page for more info.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DJI Inspire 1 takes flight with a 4K camera
http://www.cnet.com/products/dji-inspire-1/
There are quadcopters with cameras out there that could be considered nothing more than toys. The DJI Inspire 1 is no toy.
Billed by DJI as the world’s first 4K flying camera, the Inspire 1 is a step-up model from the Phantom 2 Vision+ released earlier this year. And it’s a pretty big step-up, too, with a matching price tag: $2,900. (Pricing was not announced for the UK and Australia. The US price converts to around £1,839 and AU$3,329, for comparison.)
With carbon-fiber landing gear that lowers and lifts automatically on take-off and landing, the camera’s 94-degree field of view is left unobstructed as it captures video at resolutions up to 4K at 30fps (it does 1080p at 60fps as well) and 12-megapixel stills. The camera rotates a full 360 degrees and tilts 125 degrees.
Similar to the Vision+, the camera is attached to a three-axis gimbal for smooth video even with sudden movements or high winds.
The controller also has DJI’s Lightbridge wireless transmitter technology that live-streams 1080p video to an iOS or Android device so you can set up shots at distances up to about a mile away (1.7 kilometers). WIth USB and HDMI outputs on back, you can directly connect a smartphone, tablet and/or display.
Like DJI’s other copters, the Inspire 1 can be set to return home when battery power runs low.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube announces YouTube Music Key subscription service; free invite-only beta starts Monday, will cost $7.99/month after 6 months — YouTube announces plans for a subscription music service — Ad-free music and music videos starting at $7.99 a month
YouTube announces plans for a subscription music service
Ad-free music and music videos starting at $7.99 a month
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/12/7201969/youtube-music-key-new-subscription-service
After spending months on revisions, YouTube confirmed today that it will launch a paid subscription service that lets users stream high-quality, ad-free music and music videos. The service, which launches next week in invite-only beta, is to be called YouTube Music Key. “Artists and fans have made YouTube the biggest music service in the world,” says Christophe Muller, YouTube’s director of global music partnerships. “We want to continue to make YouTube the best place for artists and fans to connect.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How much does MTV really cost? We’re about to find out
http://mashable.com/2014/11/11/fcc-comcast-att-documents/
The Federal Communications Commission plans to lift the veil on how much Comcast and AT&T pay for every channel from ABC to MTV.
The agency, weighing whether to approve more than $90 billion in pay-TV mergers between Comcast-Time Warner Cable and AT&T-DirecTV, said on Tuesday that those companies’ confidential programming documents should be made public as part of the vetting process.
The documents will be available for review at the FCC’s headquarters in Washington and other secure sites — but not digitally — starting on Nov. 17. Media companies including CBS and Fox have asked a federal court to block the move.
Tomi Engdahl says:
£2k burning a hole in your pocket? Let this ‘advanced’ DRONE relieve you
360˚ rotating camera
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/13/china_drones/
The world’s biggest consumer drone maker, China’s SZ DJI Technology Co, has released its “most advanced” drone to date.
The manufacturer unveiled its Inspire 1 Drone, priced at $2,899- $3,399 (or from £2,380 in the UK store), which will go on sale this month.
The kit includes a 360˚ rotating 4K camera, high-definition video streaming for up to 1 mile away, and 18 minutes of flight time on a single charge.
In the UK, the commercial drone industry is estimated to be worth £7bn per year over the next few years, according to a report by aerospace and defence consulting company Teal Group.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nvidia launches Grid-powered on-demand cloud gaming service for Shield
Will launch with titles like Batman: Arkham City and Borderlands 2
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2381279/nvidia-launches-grid-powered-on-demand-cloud-gaming-service-for-shield
NVIDIA has announced that it will roll out an on-demand cloud-based gaming service for its Shield tablet.
The service is powered by the firm’s Grid virtual GPU technology, which takes advantage of Citrix’s XenDesktop 7.1 and Citrix XenServer 6.2 virtualisation software to allow users to stream graphically intensive applications remotely. It will be free for Shield Tablet users until 30 June 2015.
“While Grid makes gaming gratification immediate, it took us a decade to invent the technology behind the service that streams GeForce GTX-quality graphics to Shield devices,” explained Nvidia, which touted the technology as a “gaming supercomputer in the cloud”.
“The enabling technologies of Grid are super low latency from controller streaming to graphics to game streaming. And virtualisation so that many gamers can share the GeForce cloud gaming supercomputer,” the firm added.
Nvidia explained that streaming games is difficult as it requires a powerful gaming computer in the cloud as well as ensuring that it can deliver games to players in milliseconds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MPAA launches WhereToWatch site, listing legal movie and TV streams in continued fight against piracy
Here’s Another Movie and TV Search Site. This One’s From Hollywood.
http://recode.net/2014/11/12/heres-another-movie-and-tv-search-site-this-ones-from-hollywood/
There are so many places to find movies and TV shows. They’re on TV! They’re on the Internet! Wouldn’t it be great if there were services that told you where you could find all that stuff?
There are! Several of them, actually. But the problem is that none of them have everything you want.
Now, here’s another one: Wheretowatch.com, which does what it sounds like — you type in the name of a movie or a TV show, it tells you some places you can stream them online, via download stores like iTunes and subscription services like Netflix.
Just like Canistream.it, and Flixster, and NextGuide and TV.com.
Wheretowatch does have two distinguishing factors, though. It doesn’t have ads, and it’s built by the Motion Picture Association of America, Hollywood’s trade group.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft launches Movie Creator video-editing app for Lumia devices and Surface tablets
http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/13/microsoft-launches-movie-creator-video-editing-app-for-windows-phone/
Microsoft today launched a new video-editing app for Windows Phone and Windows tablets called Movie Creator. You can download the app, currently in beta, directly from the Windows Phone Store (164MB) and the Windows Store (189.7MB).
Movie Creator lets you combine videos, photos, music, and even cinemagraphs (selectively animated photographs) into movies. It’s a four-step process: Select your footage, choose a theme, add music, and finally pick a few titles.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung Preps New Mobile Video Service
https://www.theinformation.com/Samsung-Preps-New-Mobile-Video-Service
Samsung Electronics is rebooting its mobile video strategy in a test of whether short-form video content can drive mobile revenues just as games have.
The South Korean company has earmarked several tens of millions of dollars to invest in short-form video for a new mobile product, according to people Samsung talked to about the effort. Internally, the product had gone by the code name Volt but will launch under another one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VINYL is BACK and you can thank Sonos for that
The format that wouldn’t die is officially in remission
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/14/breaking_fad_vinyl_and_turntables/
Vinyl has been the music format that wouldn’t die for the best part of three decades. Not since Kenneth Williams quipped “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!” has a death scene seemed so protracted. Now, however, it seems the format is officially in remission.
With renewed interest in pure stereo, stoked ironically by hi-res audio file formats, sales are soaring and manufacturers have been quick to capitalise with a new generation of digital friendly 12-inch disc spinners, aimed at the green fields between audiophile and nostalgia buff.
The latest vinyl sales figures, released by the British Phonographic Industry, make for fascinating reading. This year, UK album sales are on course to top the million mark for the first time since the heyday of Oasis and Blur.
The BPI’s Lynne McDowell suggests that initiatives like Record Store Day and Amazon Autorip have all contributed to the growth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anti-Piracy Firm Rightscorp On The Brink of Bankruptcy?
http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-firm-rightscorp-on-the-brink-of-bankruptcy-141114/
Rightscorp, a prominent piracy monitoring firm that sends settlement requests for Warner Bros. and other copyright holders, may soon go out of business. The publicly listed company is losing millions of dollars per year and says it desperately needs a fresh cash injection to survive.
rightscorp-realFor years the entertainment industries have been complaining that online piracy hurts their revenues.
This problem has motivated people to start anti-piracy companies such as Rightscorp, a company that uses standard DMCA takedown requests to send settlement offers to alleged copyright infringers.
Despite teaming up with prominent names such as Warner Bros. and BMG, the company hasn’t been able to turn a profit.
One of Rightscorp’s problems is that they can only reach a fraction of U.S. Internet subscribers. Most large ISPs, including Comcast, have thus far refused to forward their settlement demands.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Goodbye Popcorn Time
This experiment has come to an end
https://medium.com/@getpopcornapp/goodbye-popcorn-time-93f890b8c9f4
We are enormously proud of this project. It is the biggest thing we’ve ever achieved. And we’ve assembled an amazing team in the process, with people we love to work with.
We are startup geeks, first and foremost. We read Techcrunch, Reddit and Hacker News. We got frontpaged in Hacker News twice. At the same time. We got articles on Time Magazine, Fast Company, TechCrunch, TUAW, Ars Technica, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Yahoo Finance, Gizmodo, PC Magazine and Torrent Freak, just to name a few. And we got some action on TV and Radio shows, and this doesn’t even include the many interviews we had to reject due to the barrage of media attention.
And they were not chastising us. They were cheering for us. We became the underdog that would fight for the consumer. Some people we respect -scratch that- some of our heroes spoke wonders of Popcorn Time, which is a lot more than what we wanted to get out of an experiment we threw together in a couple of weeks.
Popcorn Time as a project is legal. We checked. Four Times.
You know what’s the best thing about Popcorn Time? That tons of people agreed in unison that the movie industry has way too many ridiculous restrictions on way too many markets.
The bulk of our users is not in the US. It’s everywhere else. Popcorn Time got installed on every single country on Earth. Even the two that don’t have internet access.
Piracy is not a people problem. It’s a service problem. A problem created by an industry that portrays innovation as a threat to their antique recipe to collect value. It seems to everyone that they just don’t care.
We’ve shown that people will risk fines, lawsuits and whatever consequences that may come just to be able to watch a recent movie in slippers. Just to get the kind of experience they deserve.
Our experiment has put us at the doors of endless debates about piracy and copyright, legal threats and the shady machinery that makes us feel in danger for doing what we love.
Tomi Engdahl says:
darktable is an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.
http://www.darktable.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uber Integrates With Spotify To Let Passengers Become Backseat DJs
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/14/uber-music/
Uber is adding a new feature to its mobile app that could allow passengers to play DJ while they take a ride with one of its drivers. Thanks to an integration with Spotify, Uber will soon make music a central part of its ride-hailing service.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google says Play Music subscribers automatically get access to YouTube Music Key starting next week
http://9to5google.com/2014/11/14/google-says-play-music-subscribers-automatically-get-access-to-youtube-music-key-starting-next-week/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadcasters Get Court To Stop Consumers From Seeing How Much Cable Companies Pay For Content
http://consumerist.com/2014/11/14/broadcasters-ask-court-to-stop-consumers-from-seeing-how-much-cable-companies-pay-for-content/
The FCC is currently mulling over whether to give its stamp of approval to two huge mergers — Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV — and is intending to make information available to third parties about the deals that that these pay-TV giants make with broadcasters. But even though you and every other cable subscriber wants to know exactly how much Comcast pays for access to channels like ESPN, MTV, and the major networks, the broadcasters want that info kept under lock and key — and they’ve asked the court to stop it from possibly going public.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optical Microscope Technique Valuable for Manufacturing Next-Generation Computer Chips
http://video.techbriefs.com/video/Optical-Microscope-Technique-Va
Research engineer Ravi Attota of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has shown that a technique developed several years ago at NIST can enable optical microscopes to measure the 3D shape of objects at nanometer-scale resolution — far below the normal resolution limit for optical microscopy. The technique could be a useful quality control tool in the manufacture of nanoscale devices such as next-generation computer chips. Attota’s experiments show that Through-focus Scanning Optical Microscopy (TSOM) is able to detect tiny differences in 3D shapes, revealing variations of less than one nanometer in size among objects less than 50 nm across.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bring back the dumb TV
Like Homer Simpson, the ideal TV should be big and unsophisticated
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/13/7213611/bring-back-the-dumb-tv
Every aspect of the modern home is getting smartened up with new intelligence. Thermostats are now adjusting themselves, vacuum cleaners are doing their own navigation, and fridges are recommending diet plans. Before companies like Nest and Roomba even existed, however, the TV was already serving as the nexus of smart technology in the home.
Nowadays, the smart TV is the default and only option in the store. I can tack on 3D and curved screen gimmicks and choose between a range of sizes and suppliers, but my TV will be “smart” whether I like it or not. That means it’ll be able to connect to the internet, browse photos and videos, and offer a few basic apps like a YouTube player. All of this extra functionality will then sit idle and disused thanks to the consistently slow and frustratingly illogical software that it’s couched in. As Apple CEO Tim Cook puts it, “you go into your living room and you step back in time.” For the next generation of users — brought up on the iPhone’s responsiveness and Android’s versatility — the experience of using smart TVs will feel positively prehistoric. So why can’t I have a dumb TV instead?
Whether I choose a stone-sized streaming box like the Apple TV or an HDMI dongle the size of a USB stick like the Chromecast, I can easily obtain the smart TV experience on the most basic of TV sets.
To compete with faster smartphone interfaces, TV makers have chosen to build the smartphone right into the TV. The most literal example of this (and current state of the smart TV art) is LG’s webOS-powered Smart+ TV. It adapts a phone operating system to the big screen and comes with a multi-core processor.
Mobile technology moves at a much faster pace than anything integrated into a TV, and most new software only supports devices built in the preceding couple of years. LG says that its webOS TVs “will support version upgrades as all smart devices should,” but if those TVs keep to the same cadence as most other smart devices, that means they’ll be out of date and sluggish before the next World Cup rolls around.
The smart TV is an abortive attempt at technological convergence that generates more compromise than convenience. There’s no doubt that Samsung, LG, and everyone else in the TV business will continue adding (rather than taking away) features in an effort to buff up spec sheets and keep prices artificially high.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Preview Jaunt’s Made-for-VR 360 Degree, 3D Short Films
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/11/17/0153214/preview-jaunts-made-for-vr-360-degree-3d-short-films
Jaunt, a company that’s raised more than $34 million to create a platform for live-action cinematic virtual reality experiences, has set out to demonstrate their toolset by producing three made-for-VR short films that are shot in 360 degrees and in 3D
Jaunt
The Future of Cinematic VR
http://www.jauntvr.com/#about
Jaunt VR’s world-class team is developing the most comprehensive
toolset for creating cinematic VR.
Our unique technology will enable creatives to film, edit and process
live-action content for virtual reality viewers.
With Jaunt™ cinematic VR, you will feel transported directly into the middle of the action. Look anywhere. See everything.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: Preview 3 of Jaunt’s VR Cinema Shorts (video)
http://www.roadtovr.com/exclusive-preview-3-jaunts-vr-cinema-shorts-video/
Jaunt has been busy shooting several made-for-VR experiences which the company says will be released for VR in trailer form “imminently.” Road to VR has the first look at three of Jaunt’s forthcoming cinematic VR experiences.
Jaunt is working to create a production platform for virtual reality films. To prove out their toolset, they’ve also begun producing content in partnership with New Deal Studios who have worked on major films like Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Watchmen, Inception, and recently, Interstellar.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix is shutting down its public API today
https://gigaom.com/2014/11/14/netflix-is-shutting-down-its-public-api-today/
Netflix is shuttering its public API today, effectively ending support for a number of third-party apps that made use of the API to get TV and movie show titles as well as other data from the streaming service.
The move doesn’t come as a surprise; Netflix stopped issuing new keys to its public API two years ago
Apps or mashups that have made use of the public API will return 404 error messages starting today. However, not all apps that incorporate Netflix data will break: The company has partnered with a small number of third-party developers to give them continued access to its data. These partners include NextGuide, Yidio, Fanhattan and Can I Stream It.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Extremely Tiny 5.8GHz FPV Transmitter
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/16/an-extremely-tiny-5-8ghz-fpv-transmitter/
Flying RC aircraft with a first person view is the latest and greatest thing in the hobby. In a fact that I’m sure will be shocking to 90% of people, you don’t need to buy a Phantom quad fly FPV. The guys at Flite Test show how you can build a tiny 5.8GHz FPV transmitter for under $100.
The parts used for this build are pretty much jelly bean parts at this point, but [Peter] at Flite Test is going for extremely lightweight parts for this build. He found an NTSC board camera that only weighs 1g and added a wide-angle lens. The transmitter is a tiny 200mW module that only weighs about 2g.
DIY Micro 5.8Ghz FPV by FliteTest
http://flitetest.com/articles/diy-micro-5-8ghz-fpv
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony SPILLS GUTS on OTT service, so far for PlayStations only
Cloudy streaming media service
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/17/sony_unveils_guts_of_ott_service_so_far_for_playstations_only/
Sony has unveiled its widely expected PlayStation Vue OTT TV service, telling us everything we need to know except the most important part: the price. At present it is just a US phenomenon, which makes sense – if it can make it there it can make it anywhere.
It is referred to as a cloud-based TV service and claims to reinvent the TV experience. Well it would. What that means is that it uses the same old cross-media bar that has been in most Sony devices for the past decade, and it suggests that it has intuitive search so that you find what you want to watch faster than a traditional EPG. It is said to extend this with an “explore option” within search hits. Search can also extend to type of programme, genre, ratings, popularity and length.
But this is the first OTT service in the US that has not come from an existing pay TV company, which carries many of the major US broadcast networks, CBS, Discovery, Fox, NBC-Universal, Viacom and Scripps – it’s just ABC that seems to be missing. It also alludes to a total of 75 channels, which is a darn site more than any of the TV Everywhere services of Cablecos, and is effectively a cable service over the internet.
Sony is also talking about transparent pricing, which sounds like a real move in the right direction, whereby you select a channel you want, and an unbundled price for each channel comes up and you commit to it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uber brings Spotify streaming to your morning commute
http://www.engadget.com/2014/11/17/uber-spotify-partnership-official/
Reports surfaced last week that Uber riders would soon be able to blast tunes from Spotify during the commute, and now the partnership is official. After hailing a car via the handy app, you can decide what music you’re in the mood for, and when the car arrives to pick you up, it’ll already be playing inside. You’ll need to connect that paid streaming account inside Uber’s mobile software to opt in, but doing so not only sets the music beforehand, but allows you to control it for the duration of the trip.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s IMX230 Sensor To Bring HDR 4k Recording, 192-Point Phase Detection AF
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sony-exmor-rs-imx230-sensor,28080.html
Sony announced its next-generation 21 MP smartphone camera sensor that delivers higher image quality and improved functionality, such as 192 simultaneous points for its image plane phase detection auto-focus system and live HDR for 4k video recording.
The new Exmor RS IMX230 sensor consists of a new signal processor, which helps it achieve such high performance. On top of that, there is a section of back-illuminated pixels, resulting in a stacked construction. According to Sony, this type of construction delivers higher quality imaging and higher functionality for its size compared to competing sensors.
The sensor can use up to 192 autofocus points to detect any movement within the frame and focus on it instantly.
Sony had previously announced in 2012 that its new sensors would support HDR for video recording, but not for still images. The new IMX230 sensor supports both, and it’s also able to capture HDR stills at the sensor’s full 21 MP.
The new sensor is expected to ship in April 2015, which is around the time we’d expect the Xperia Z4 to show up, too. For everyone else who might want to buy the IMX230, the sensor will cost about $18.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cisco launches new telepresence system, Project Squared mobile app
http://www.zdnet.com/cisco-launches-new-telepresence-system-project-squared-mobile-app-7000035791/
Summary: Cisco is busy retooling its collaboration portfolio with a telepresence system that uses less bandwidth and power and Project Squared, a mobile app that offers video conferencing, document sharing and other tools.
Cisco on Monday launched a new three-screen telepresence system designed to cut costs on bandwidth and deployment as well as a mobile collaboration effort dubbed Project Squared.
The system has three 4K cameras, theater quality audio with 18 speakers, a microphone array as well as motion sensors that adjust when a person stands or moves. The IX5000 uses less bandwidth via H.265 compression and will start at less than $9,000 a month for 36 months.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researchers Announce Advance in Image-Recognition Software
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/science/researchers-announce-breakthrough-in-content-recognition-software.html?_r=0
Two groups of scientists, working independently, have created artificial intelligence software capable of recognizing and describing the content of photographs and videos with far greater accuracy than ever before, sometimes even mimicking human levels of understanding.
Until now, so-called computer vision has largely been limited to recognizing individual objects. The new software, described on Monday by researchers at Google and at Stanford University, teaches itself to identify entire scenes: a group of young men playing Frisbee, for example, or a herd of elephants marching on a grassy plain.
The software then writes a caption in English describing the picture. Compared with human observations, the researchers found, the computer-written descriptions are surprisingly accurate.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sony’s IMX230 Sensor To Bring HDR 4k Recording, 192-Point Phase Detection AF
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sony-exmor-rs-imx230-sensor,28080.html
Sony announced its next-generation 21 MP smartphone camera sensor that delivers higher image quality and improved functionality, such as 192 simultaneous points for its image plane phase detection auto-focus system and live HDR for 4k video recording.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Android TV Apps Will Be Screened And Approved By Google Before Being Available In The Play Store
Posted by Shawn De Cesari in Android TV, News
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/11/17/android-tv-apps-will-be-screened-and-approved-by-google-before-being-available-in-the-play-store/
In a somewhat surprising, but completely understandable, move, Google has added a pretty large caveat to Play Store app submissions for Android TV. According to the Android developer documentation page on submitting apps, the company will pre-screen and approve all Android TV apps before making them available for download via the platform’s marketplace.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Teardown: Ethernet and EMP take out TV tuner
http://www.edn.com/design/wireless-networking/4437296/Teardown–Ethernet-and-EMP-take-out-TV-tuner?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20141114&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20141114&elq=768123d0c97d47268d2edb1ce2f1dd4f&elqCampaignId=20198
the lightning bolt near-hit that my Rocky Mountain residence experienced in mid-August and dissected two of its casualties, those being five- and eight-port Gigabit Ethernet switches. This time, the third victim goes “under the knife.” It’s SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun Prime networked CableCARD adapter, which embeds three QAM tuners and is intended for mating to a companion PC-as-Windows Media Center server.
The first thing you might notice is the system SoC, located near the PCB center, whose identity is obscured by a heat sink. I wasn’t able to find a FCC ID stamp anywhere on the PCB, which might enable me to documentation-discern the SoC’s part number and supplier, but once again WikiDevi came through for me. The chip is Ubicom’s IP7150U communications and media processor; the company was acquired in early 2012 and I can’t find any mention of the SoC on new owner Qualcomm’s website. Here’s an archive of the relevant product page.
In my particular case, after the lightning strike, the CableCARD-associated LED remained green, but the LAN-associated LED went red and remained in that state no matter what I did. That fact leads me to the remaining notable IC on the PCB, a Realtek RTL8211CL single-port Ethernet controller. If you’ve read my previous writeups on this subject, you already know that I don’t believe a premises power surge was behind the devices’ failures. Instead, I think that the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) generated by the lightning bolt coupled to Ethernet cable, acting as an antenna, and zapped relevant ICs inside the devices via that path.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BitTorrent Opens Its Paygate Premium Content Bundles To All Artists, Giving Creators A 90% Cut
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/17/bittorrent-bundles-paygate/
BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer file distribution network that has been repositioning itself as a legit friend and home to the creative industries, is today embarking on the latest phase of its strategy to build a bigger business model for itself, and the musicians, filmmakers and others whose content gets distributed on its network. It is opening its paygate-based business model to all artists and others who would like to use BitTorrent to distribute their content.
At a time when there is a lot of debate over whether services like Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube or Amazon are really giving creators the returns they deserve when their content is downloaded or streamed on those platforms, BitTorrent believes that it has the answer: giving artists a 90% cut of all sales around a model that features a flexible model: you can take some content for free, get some behind a paywall; or see the content move to paywall after a certain number of visits for example.
“Taylor Swift sparked debate over the state of music in recent weeks; the value of a stream, the value of a record. The value of art shouldn’t be up for debate. It should be up to artists,”
In addition to the 10% cut to BitTorrent, she says that the publisher is also responsible for payment processing fees, which is typically less than 5%. “This is a much better deal for artists.”
“For one, it’s transparent. Other sales and streaming platforms have come under attack for failing to disclose the deals they’ve made with labels.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Moving Cameras Track Objects Automatically
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/1198-ntb/news/news/21031
University of Washington electrical engineers have developed a way to automatically track people across moving and still cameras by using an algorithm that trains the networked cameras to learn one another’s differences. The cameras first identify a person in a video frame, then follow that same person across multiple camera views.
“Tracking humans automatically across cameras in a three-dimensional space is new,” said lead researcher Jenq-Neng Hwang, a UW professor of electrical engineering. “As the cameras talk to each other, we are able to describe the real world in a more dynamic sense.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nielsen to begin measuring viewership of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon in December
Nielsen Set To Measure SVOD Viewership On Netflix, Amazon Prime, Others: Report
http://deadline.com/2014/11/nielsen-measure-netflix-amazon-prime-svod-1201288552/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft unveils Office 365 Video for secure enterprise video sharing and streaming
http://betanews.com/2014/11/18/microsoft-unveils-office-365-video-for-secure-enterprise-video-sharing-and-streaming/
Microsoft is giving Office 365 users an early glimpse of what it hopes will become the future of enterprise video sharing. Office 365 Video harnesses the power of SharePoint and Azure Media Services to create a tool that gives businesses a one-stop-shop for uploading, sharing, delivering and streaming videos.
A number of possible scenarios are set out by Mark Kashman, a senior product manager in the Office 365 group. From providing employees with access to training videos to delivering CEO messages, this is a flexible tool that has been designed with security and simplicity in mind. Office 365 Video is not expected to launch until early next year, but a sneak peak is available right now.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple May Introduce ‘Biggest Camera Jump Ever’ in Next-Generation iPhone
http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/18/apple-biggest-camera-jump-ever/
Apple may introduce its “biggest camera jump ever” in the next-generation iPhone, according to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber (via The Tech Block).
Gruber says that he’s heard that Apple’s rear camera could incorporate a two-lens system, which sounds somewhat similar to the Duo Lens camera that was introduced with the HTC One M8. In the One M8, a standard sensor is combined with an “Ultrapixel” sensor that lets in much more light to improve image quality. The secondary lens in the M8 is used to provide additional image information to the first lens, which also lets the focus be shifted.
Another two lens system that hints at what a two-lens setup in the iPhone might be capable of is being developed by Corephotonics. Corephotonics’ system takes advantage of two lenses with separate focal lengths, switching between lenses to magnify distant subjects without the need for a traditional zoom.
Given the fact that there’s little information on what Apple’s actually working on for its next-generation iPhone, it’s hard to say whether a potential two-lens system would work in the same way as the above examples, but two-lens cameras are a new frontier that manufacturers are exploring in order to improve image quality while keeping devices slim.
Just yesterday longtime Apple supplier Sony unveiled a new 21-megapixel “stacked” sensor with ultra fast autofocus and 4K HDR video. While the 21-megapixel version is unlikely to make its way into iOS devices, it’s possible that Apple’s next iPhone could incorporate an upcoming Sony 16-megapixel sensor that includes the same impressive features.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft adds video offering to Office 365. Oh NOES, you’ll need Adobe Flash
Lovely presentations… but not on your Flash-hating mobe
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/19/microsoft_adds_video_offering_to_office_365/
Microsoft has added a video portal to Office 365, enabling users to upload and share videos. The service will be in preview soon, and available to all customers with the right kind of subscription in early 2015.
So what is the point, when YouTube does this so well? The idea is to manage internal videos with permissions based on Azure Active Directory, the directory for all Office 365 users. Videos are organised into channels, and each channel has edit and view permissions which admins assign to Office 365 users or groups. Typical uses would be for training, presentations, or announcements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix wants to bring personalization to mobile devices
https://gigaom.com/2014/11/18/netflix-wants-to-bring-personalization-to-mobile-devices/
For Netflix, the concept of personalization doesn’t just apply to what movies or television shows tickle your fancy. It also applies to the way you watch video, especially when it comes to mobile.
People watch video differently on their smart phones than TV, explained Netflix Design Director Dantley Davis onstage at Gigaom’s Roadmap conference, so the design and user interface has to reflect that.
Mobile users tend to check their phones about 150 times a day and spend around 10 minutes tops watching video streams, which is obviously not conducive to the roughly hour-long episodes of Orange is the New Black.
To address this, Netflix is experimenting with “bite-sized content,” meaning specialized versions of TV shows cut down to five minutes to satisfy those mobile viewers. The difficulty is making sure that the show is “contextually relevant” to the viewer and shows something compelling.
Netflix also wants to apply personalization to the visual icons people see when they choose shows to watch. The streaming giant convinced Hollywood to move past the standard VHS box art and DVD cover art that used to represent shows on Netflix to now showcase Netflix’s own custom-tailored graphics (made in conjunction with the film industry).
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Speaker That Defies Gravity
Mars is a new home music hub that fuses sci-fi design with precise, thoughtful engineering. The magic behind Mars lies in its revolutionary Graviton-powered levitating speaker/subwoofer system that prevents loss of sound experienced when speakers are placed directly on a plane surface
Read more at http://www.yankodesign.com/2014/11/04/a-speaker-that-defies-gravity/#YhSrAGfmTxBuWk6x.99
Tomi Engdahl says:
Battle of the Processors: A Guide to Next-Generation Medical Imaging Products
http://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com/component/content/article/1105-mdb/features/20791
The choice seemed obvious to our client because that is how the legacy systems of the product were architected. But we quickly realized there was a major challenge ahead—getting the processor to work with UltraHD/4K image resolution.
4K video content has been a revelation in terms of quality and image clarity, and the consumer electronics industry has led technology adoption when it comes to displays. The problem designing 4K video systems with general purpose processors is two-pronged. The first issue was that there are not many vendors in the market that would support 4K resolution imaging, in fact, there is just one. The second issue was that the processor was targeted for consumer applications with a market life of three years.
Similar analysis on other general purpose processors and microcontrollers led us to the same conclusion; they may no longer be good enough for imaging applications. This is because as medical imaging advances, engineers and designers will have to move image processing functions to specialized processors to offer advanced features and disruptive performance. We, therefore, had three options for the road ahead: a DSP, an FPGA, and a GPU.
DSPs are best suited to portable devices. Some examples include the Texas Instruments K2E, Texas Instruments Hawking, Freescale IMX.6, and Blackfin.
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are configured by a specialized Hardware Description Language (HDL).
PGAs are flexible, though, and can be reprogrammed after deployment. Examples of FPGAs include Altera, Microsemi, Xilinx.
Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer for output with their parallel structure. They support programmable shaders, which can manipulate vertices and textures, oversampling and interpolation techniques, and very high-precision color spaces. They are ideal for constructing 3D models. (See Figure 2) These include the NVIDIA Tesla, NVIDIA Tegra, AMD Radeon.
Some chips, like the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, incorporate multiple capabilities: a central processing unit, a DSP, and a GPU.
3D imaging, imaging analytics, and 4K content are among the emerging trends in the medical devices industry.
The GPU topped the performance metric because of its multicore, parallel architecture, which can handle large parallel data operations with very low latency in real time.
Our evaluation showed GPUs to be the best option for high-end performance followed by FPGAs and DSPs, in that order. On the efficiency front, microprocessors are the most energy-efficient devices on the table. Typically, FPGAs have higher energy consumption compared to DSPs, but they offer a high degree of flexibility in terms of throughput. The overall energy consumption for FPGAs depends on the application being ported. It may sometimes be less than that for DSPs.
The downside to using a GPU is that it needs to be coupled with a CPU, an FPGA, or a controller for data processing execution. This would add to the overall bill-of-materials for the system.
For the UltraHD 4K resolution imaging, we initially looked at a GPU as it offered the best performance. Soon we realized that we would need to split the frames into four HD images and process them independently.
A high-end FPGA-based design by itself could encompass all the functionality required, but the design and verification cycle was too long for the client’s comfort. So, we opted for a simpler FPGA and a DSP to reduce design time. The FPGA could split the image into four 4K images, which could easily be processed by a DSP.