Intel bringing vision, 3D to laptop and tablet cameras

From mundane 2D devices, integrated cameras in laptops and tablets in the future will change into powerful 3D tools that can sense movement, track emotion, and even monitor reading habits of children, according to Intel.

Intel is developing a "depth sensing" camera, which is an enhanced version of a 3D camera that can go deeper inside images to "bridge the gap between the real and virtual world," said Anil Nanduri , director of perceptual products & solutions at Intel.

The webcam enhancements will help the computer understand a human better, bring new levels of interactivity to 3D games, and make webconferencing fun by blanking out the background and adding a green screen, Nanduri said.

"You'll add the ability to sense your excitement, emotion -- whether you are happy or smiling. The algorithms and technologies are there, but they are getting more refined, and as they get more robust, you'll see them," Nanduri said.

Such depth cameras will be integrated into laptops and ultrabooks in the second half of 2014. The technology will initially appear in external webcams such as Senz3D external webcam, which was jointly developed by Logitech and Intel, and will become available in the coming quarters. The camera technology will ultimately trickle down to tablets and smartphones, Nanduri said.

The camera will also be able to identify characteristics, contours and shapes of items in view. For example, the camera's ability to sense distance, size, depth, color, contours and other parameters of structures could also help in the growing area of 3D printing. A depth sensing picture of a model can be extracted to reveal exact specifications and other details of a design, which can then be printed.

"You are not going to look for a case [for a device] anymore, you'll just point that device, and the cameras will recognize what you have. It'll know the model number...and it'll print [the case] for you, or you go to the store, they will print it for you," Nanduri said.

With the help of eye tracking, it could also track how well somebody is reading and use that information as an evaluation tool. For example, it could track reading, and tell if kids are stuck on words, how much they read, or whether they need help with specific words.

"Having the capabilities to say -- they read about 80 percent of the lines, they had difficulty with these words -- that kind of intelligence for educational tools is phenomenal," Nanduri said.

Other small enhancements also include using a motion-sensing game where hands can be followed to pick up objects in the wider dimension of 3D games. The data collected by the camera could be combined with other modalities like voice recognition to improve human-computer interaction.

There are already 3D cameras out there, but Intel is trying to tack on the algorithm and hardware features that make images more meaningful.

"Kinect was a good initial version of a depth camera more from a long range perspective. When Intel started looking at it, we were primarily looking at it primarily as more personal interaction, short range, which is probably a meter or meter-and-a-half range of interaction," Nanduri said.

Integration in the thin ultrabook display panels may be a challenge. Intel is addressing the challenges with a high resolution short-range camera that focuses on a small area, and what Nanduri called "finger-level articulation."

"You need to have a lot more resolution for that zone. To really scale it to volumes, you need to get to the right form factor from the optics perspective, you need to get to the right power levels and you need to have the right cost structure to help scale it into integration," Nanduri said.

When the technology reaches devices, users may progressively forget the keyboard and mouse when interacting with computers.

"When you have depth information, what you can do with it is pretty phenomenal," Nanduri said.

The Best Space Images Ever Were Taken by Apollo Astronauts With Hasselblad Cameras

The most iconic photos from the manned exploration of space come from the monumental Apollo project. But if you're not a camera buff or a space-history enthusiast, you may not know that nearly every single famous photo from that program was taken using Hasselblad cameras.

Known among photographers for their larger-than-normal film format and amazing optical qualities, the Swedish-based Hasselblad has also had a more than 50-year partnership with NASA. Astronaut Wally Schira carried the first Hasselblad used by NASA, a 500C camera -- which he had purchased at a Houston photo supply shop -- during his turn around the Earth in a Mercury rocket in in 1962.

Subsequent Mercury and Gemini astronauts also used Hasselblads, and each space shuttle flight took an average of 1,000 and 2,000 pictures with the cameras. Both NASA and the astronauts liked the Hasselblads for many reasons.

“The cameras were relatively simple to use, and film was preloaded into magazines that could easily be interchanged in mid-roll when lighting situations changed,” wrote Gary H. Kitmacher for NASA’s history office.
The Hasselblad EDC, which was carried by each Apollo astronaut. ©Hasselblad

NASA asked Hasselblad for a modified version of their 500EL models to use during the Apollo moon missions. Known as the Hasselblad Electric Data Camera (EDC), these machines came with specially designed lenses and a glass plate that placed reference crosses on each image to make it possible to figure out the distance and heights of objects in the photos. The EDC's photo plate was also coated with a small conductive layer of silver, preventing the buildup of static electricity that could result in a spark. Finally, the outer camera was painted silver to help maintain the temperature, and all lubricants had to be replaced to allow the machines to work in the vacuum of space.

Starting with Apollo 8, astronauts carried a Hasselblad EDC with them on their lunar journeys. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin each had one during their brief but historic romp on the moon on July 20, 1969. Subsequent men also took Hasselblads, 12 of which are now sitting on the moon’s surface, left behind to save weight on the return trip. Only the film magazines returned to Earth.

Pictures from Apollo allowed people all over the world to participate in the trip. Looking through the Apollo Hasselblad film reels is like perusing someone’s weird vacation slides. Except in this case, the vacation happens to be one taken on the moon. As an additional and somewhat related bonus, the state of film technology in 1969 provides definitive proof that the moon landings could not have been faked.

In honor of the 44th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic landing, here we present a gallery of some of the best shots that astronauts took from the moon and space with Hasselblad cameras.

Above:
Neil Armstrong stands on the moon next to the Apollo 11 lunar lander, showing the American flag nearby. Most of the Apollo 11 images were taken by Armstrong and so feature Buzz Aldrin. This is one of the few with Armstrong actually in it.

Image: NASA