While it is unclear if there is gold buried in these pixels, one thing is for sure – the mobile photos could be better – in fact a lot better. Pelican Imaging, a Mountain View, Calif.-based technology start-up wants to change that – thanks to a radical new approach to mobile cameras and sensors, which depends more on software than megapixels.

The company that was co-founded by Aman Jabbi (CEO) and Kartik Venkataraman (CTO), life long chip-heads and former colleagues at Micron Imaging (now a standalone company called Aptina) in May 2008 and since then it has raised million in two round of funding from the likes of Globespan Capital Partners, Granite Ventures, InterWest Partners and IQT. Jabbi says the company has a simple mission – bust the megapixel myth and make mobile imaging a radically new experience.

The MegaPixel Myth

First, let’s talk about the megapixel myth. Many of us believe that more megapixels we have on our mobile phone camera, the better will be our photos. Today, not a day goes by when some mobile phone manufacturer or the other boasts about the megapixels on the cameras they have crammed into their handsets. And yet, we all end-up snapping pictures that are dark, blurry, somewhat discolored and well, not very cool.

The reason for that is that while the mobile cameras might have the megapixels, the overall capabilities are not enough for the camera to grab as much light and process the images effectively. At a certain point, more megapixels become counter productive, unless there are certain other capabilities into the camera modules.

The digital picture quality is determined by multiple factors — pixel count, sensor size, lens quality and how the pixels are organized. In case of cellular cameras, the lenses are fixed focus and sensors are too small. Often, the resolution of the sensor sometimes exceeds the capabilities of the lens, which forces makers of cell-phones to use big lens, which often leads to ungainly looking cameras on phones.

Pelican has found a way to fix all those problems by using smart software and new camera module design. Instead of having a single camera of say 8 megapixels, they have developed a camera module that is made up of 25 micro-cameras. It is much thinner than the current generation of camera modules.

Software Is Sharp & Sexy

Pelican’s module is a camera array, which takes the optical data and processes it using special software (also created by Pelican) to create high quality images. Dual core processors and special media processors will turn tomorrow’s smartphones into screamers and Pelican uses that processing power for its special software.

The software allows the camera module to do many cool things. New applications are also enabled by introducing features such as 3-D depth, gesture control, and the ability for users to interact with the image before and after capturing the shot. Think of it as a way to create more realistic visual experiences. It allows the module to add create post-photo processing effects, for example. Think of it as the more advanced version of Apple’s HDR technology – a way to process photos using software that enhances those pictures.

“What we are doing is changing how light is captured on the cameras and allowing the camera modules to capture a lot more raw data, and you can do a lot with this data which is processed by our software,” Jabbi says.

Pelican’s technology is going to enable the thinner and smaller phones to have high-quality cameras. In order to get its technology to the market, Pelican’s VP of Marketing and Business Development, Oliver Gunasekara, formerly of ARM tells me the company is going to adopt the approach adopted by ARM, the mobile processor technology company that licenses its intellectual property and designs to chipmakers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Pelican’s technology will be embedded into the camera modules manufactures and phone makers, who will pay the company a small fee in order to use its technology.

Getting a buy-in from a large and diverse ecosystem is not easy – ask ARM which had spent a lot of years in chip wilderness before finding a way to profits and superstardom. It is a considerable challenge, but one thing going for Pelican is actually its technology. Some of the leading academics have signed on to advise and lend their expertise to the company. Professor Marc Levoy, of Stanford University a well know authority in computational photography who is on the technical board of advisers of Pelican noted:

“Pelican’s technology has the potential to upset the traditional tradeoff between the sensitivity and resolution of a camera and its thickness. It also brings new capabilities to cameras, including post-capture focusing, foveal imaging and programmable frame rates.  We have been investigating these aspects of computational photography in our laboratory at Stanford for a number of years, through the Stanford Multi-Camera Array, which is big, slow and expensive. Pelican’s solution is small, fast and inexpensive – which makes it a very exciting technology.”

Today, if you asked me what would Pelican do for you, my answer would be take better pictures of you when you are misbehaving with a beer buzz. In the future, it could help develop more realistic interactive visual experience in apps that would make today’s photo-sharing services simply primitive.

To sum it up, I would just say one thing – it is nice to see companies like Path and PicPlz get the attention, in reality it is technology innovators such as Pelican who really end-up making the difference.

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GigaOMTech

Mine is the newest sing of Taylor Swift marking her as one of the most proficient lyricists in pop new music. Nonetheless, the sound of “Mine” appears like a comprehensive retread of earlier hits like “Appreciate Story.” Taylor Swift proves by means of stay performances that she has pursuits that assortment into other pop, rock, and even R&B places. Nonetheless, the introduction to her 3rd studio album Converse now provides no actual surprises. Taylor Swift Mine mp3 download in most simple way. We also have the trademark Taylor Swift pause as nicely. Nonetheless, by now with two multi-platinum albums of songs flooding the radio airwaves, this all sounds rather pat and familiar.

Katy Perry produced the globe sit up and hear for “kissing a girl”, in her 2008 debut smash hit single, and her 3rd and most recent album “Teenage Dream”, hitting shops this month, once more reveals her sassy aspect.The pop star’s quite initial record, a Christian-gospel inspired album released below her actual identify Katy Hudson, went unnoticed on its 2001 release. “I contemplate “Teenage Dream” to be the logical continuation of my initial album. I don’t think folks want me to be anyone other than myself,” Perry, the daughter of two pastors, stated. Katy Perry Teenage Dream mp3 download for free of charge.

However for nearly all of us, the photographs simply don’t compare to what we’ve expected. Why won’t your photographs WOW others like you’d wanted them to? Relax, here are four uncomplicated, new – methods – to taking a lot more appealing and unforgettable pictures. (My favorite is 4 the camera backdrop!)

Trick 1 – Try out different camera exposure adjustments
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Remember, just because the camera’s automatic setting affirms an exposure is “correct” – that does not mean it’s “accurate”! By experimenting with the assorted exposure settings of your camera, you could take photos 0.5 to 2 f-stops underexposed in bright areas (for instance the brilliant reflection of light off snow) and create photos which are GREATLY enhanced over the auto adjustments. Try shooting darker subjects with a little overexposure. You’ll like the extra detail you can see in the shadows!

Merely by turning off the exposure level, you’ll be able to make photography which elicits several moods from your photos’ viewers.

A photograph may well say a “1,000 Words” however, more importantly, it might produce a 1,000 “feelings” as well!

Test bracketing the shots (i.e. Make the same pictures employing several exposure levels) and you’ll never go back to the automatic adjustments on your camera.

Trick 2 – Produce a little innovative blur in pictures
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By inserting a little well-designed blur in pictures, it is possible to accent specific important features, or subjects.

It is important to have one – STAR – in each of your photographs. As a result of maintaining the star in razor-sharp focus and blurring out the rest, it isolates and forces attention onto your star!

Intentional defocus is generally inserted in only two primary ways…

First: depth-of-field.

Shifting your lens aperture to the lowest option can create a stunning, gentle background blur which brings razor-sharp focus to the model in the forefront.

Mess around with various aperture options to achieve varying degrees of background blur. This is now where your imaginative visualization will begin to shine!

Second: movement blur.

That’s inserted by setting the camera’s exposure on shutter priority. Or else manually adjusting the shutter speed – just don’t forget to vary the f-stop controls correspondingly.

Keep it slow in order to capture interesting streaks as the model moves past the front of your camera. The lower the shutter’s speed, the more of the streak. The faster the speed, the more it’ll freeze it in place.

Trick 3 – Make Unique Photographs!
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Avoid taking pictures in already well-liked places where everyone else is taking pictures. Your work needs to be novel! Get away from the “beaten path!”

Avoid shooting all your photos at eye level. Evaluate taking pictures at different angles…stand up high, lay down on the ground.

Photograph reflections, shadows, swift shutter speeds, lengthy shutter speeds, so on. Frequently experiment and it won’t take long before people are coming to YOU to get photo guidance!

Trick 4 – (And this can be the best of all…) Enrich the camera backdrop
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What often is the one major difference between novice and expert portraits? IT’S YOUR CAMERA BACKDROP!

Expert shooters make use of professional backdrops!

Whenever you want to achieve an instantaneous – and amazing – advance in your photography, be sure to devote thought on the photography background.

Don’t worry; it’s not as challenging as you might suppose. The key ones you will want are a solid white, a solid black and a few different “Old Masters” style.

True, they can cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars, but it in reality isn’t that demanding to make your own camera backdrop for just pennies on the dollar! Give it a shot!

If you are looking for a new set of laptop or computer speakers, Altec Lansing has got something new for you. The BXR 1221 2.1 Altec Lansing speaker set is composed of 2 speakers and one subwoofer with a beautiful black design meant to look extraordinary attached to your unit. The 2 speakers are shaped like theater or cinema reflectors. You can control the volume directly from the speaker. It may not be the most powerful set of speakers but due to the subwoofer, you can enjoy some nice bass levels and for $30 this could be considered a bargain.

By Evan Ackerman

The internet can be a lonely place. You have no idea who you’re really talking to, whether they claim to be a 48 year old guy in his mom’s basement or a hot lonely teenage girl (like me), which is why instead of real people, you need Chatman. Chatman is a friendly yellow PC accessory who has no secrets and is “destined to become every kids new best mate” thanks to some fancy artificial intelligence software. Chatman spies on your instant messages, web surfing, gaming, and social networks and somehow “gets involved” by “tell[ing] you exactly what he thinks and how he feels about the discussions exchanged.”

In addition to moving eyes, arms, ear things, and an LED emoticon mouth, Chatman has 3 personality options, 25 moods (whatever that means), and over 500 different actions. You can program Chatman with new actions and stuff, but before he’ll use them, they have to get approved by his parent corporation. Incidentally, while Chatman won’t actually prevent you from visiting no-no websites, he will tattle back to your parents and verbally chastise you. There isn’t a lot of information on these features specifically, and that makes it all seem a little bit sinister, like Chatman is actually designed to be some nanny software in a kid-friendly and “fun” (sort of) disguise. Your friendly, round, and yellow little bit brother should be available around Easter for nobody knows how much.

[ re:creation ] VIA [ Pocket Lint ]

MySpace uses lots of features like:

Moods are small icons used to express the user’s daily mood. This service was implemented in July 2007.

Blurbs, blogs, multimedia

Profiles contains several sections known as “Blurbs” –  ”About Me” , “Who I’d Like to Meet” , “Interests”  and a “Details” section. In the “Details” section, we have other sections like   ”Status” and “Zodiac Sign”. Anyway, it is not mandatory for users to fill these sections, but they usually complete them to get known better with one each other .

Profiles also contain a blog that has standard forms for the content to be filled, emoticons, and media. MySpace also allows you to upload images, having several options. One image can be used as the “default image”, (the image representing your profile). Other images can be uploaded in the gallery and the pictures can receive comments from other users of MySpace. With the help of a picture editor, you can crop images, adjust contrast, convert picture in cartoons and many others.

MySpace also allows flash pictures to be embedded. Blogging features are also available.

Bulletins

Bulletins are usually used for sending mass-messages to the entire friend list. Some users of MySpace use Bulletins service to send mass-messages about politics, but especially about religion that refers to bad luck or death, messages which are considered to be a threat for other users.

Groups - allows users to share a page and messages from that page. Groups may be created by every user and the administrator of that group may choose who joins.

MySpaceIM

MySpaceIM is an instant messenger. A user of MySpace logs on to the client using the data associated with his or her MySpace account.

MySpace TV

In 2007, it was implemented MySpaceTV, service like YouTube video sharing.

Applications

In 2008, appeared the API (application programming interface) through which users can create applications for several users to post on their profiles, but with several restrictions regarding comments at photos and media.

MySpace News - displays news (using RSS feeds service) submitted by users. News can also be ranked by users.  As the news gets more votes, they will move upper in the page.

MySpace Classifieds – classified listing by several categories

MySpace Karaoke- allows users to upload on their profile page, recorded audio of them singing. Such recordings can be rated by other users.

MySpace Polls - allows users to post polls on their profile and share with other users.

MySpace forums (more like a group but using implementations of Telligent Community)

MySpace features are not enough when asking “How to make my MySpace cool?” Some users may think their MySpace page is boring, so they started to search for different backgrounds , layouts, applications through HTML Codes found on special sites dedicated to stuff for “Pimp MySpace”.

There are several categories to browse  stuff codes like: Comments/Sayings, Seasonal/Holiday, Layouts, Blogger Templates, Page Graphics, Flash Toys, Generators, Graphics/Images, Codes & Tweaks.

I will take some example of Codes to use for your MySpace, to make it look cooler and different from other user’s profile.

Comments/Sayings are comments expressed by pictures. So, when you just want to say “Hello”, you can insert a code and it will generate a picture expressing the message.

Layouts are actually backgrounds with different printed animal, weather, nature and so on. If you you insert a HTML code, it will generate a background for your page on MySpace.

Blogger Templates are layouts for blogs or better said, backgrounds for blogs. You just insert a specific HTML code, and it automatically generates a background for your blog page.

These were just few examples of how to make your MySpace page special, and there are hundreds of methods to do it. So, through these methods of personalize pages, you can have a page customized as you wish.

The app promises the ability to build playlists based on the “moods” you set on the app’s sliders. Obviously, you can download through a computer or on your phone itself.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

So here are the rules. No more Twittering. No more friending. And definitely no more updating people on your latest moods, feelings, lovers, and …

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy claims it has developed a device that can translate what a dog “says” into human language and emoticons in real time. And the so-called “Bowlingual” [JP] isn’t being marketed as a (pure) gag product.

Jointly developed with an acoustics research laboratory and a veterinarian, the Bowlingual works wirelessly (your dog must wear a wireless mic around the neck). Let the device catch noises made by your dog (transmission range: 10m) and it will analyze the “animal language” with a special algorithm before telling you on the LCD screen what was being “said”.

The Bowlingual displays text (in Japanese) and a range of graphics to show what your dog feels, in real-time (there is also speech output). There are around 200 text blocks and icons that illustrate a total of six moods: frustration, joy, sadness etc.

Data can be saved for later analysis. And Takara Tomy even threw in a answering machine function that makes it possible to monitor your dog’s feelings when you’re away.

The Bowlingual will hit Japanese stores on August 23 with a $220 price tag. It’s Japan-only for the time being.

Here is the official promo video:

Gadget translates baby’s cries into various moods
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CrunchPad prototype coming this month, be available ASAP