Bing - One foot US Imagery for the US...

BOULDERBing team finishes U.S. maps

Search engine offers newest aerial views

Posted: Friday, August 31, 2012 12:00 am

MCT | 0 comments

The Boulder-based Microsoft team that handles images for Bing Maps wrapped up a two-year project this week that photographed the U.S. down to the foot.

The imagery — which only excludes Nevada’s so-called Area 51 and the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, as required by the federal government — gives Internet search engine Bing the most detailed, up-to-date set of aerial photos.

"We’re the only mapping project that has done a complete aerial view of the U.S." at this resolution in this time frame, said Nathan Kling, business manager for the Boulder team.

To celebrate the milestone, Boulder artists this week drew a giant Bing logo on the top level of the city parking garage that sits adjacent to Microsoft's local office. On Wednesday, planes took a last round of aerial photos of Boulder to capture the image of the Bing logo in downtown.

The Bing team also partnered with DigitalGlobe in Longmont on the project.

The aerial imaging project goes back to 2006 when Microsoft acquired Boulder-based aerial camera designer Vexcel and set up a permanent presence in town, said Nathan Kling, business manager for Microsoft’s Boulder team.

In the years since, the Boulder team worked with partners in Austria to build on the Vexcel design, creating a high-resolution camera with a wider view. The Boulder team also created a tool that can be used to fix the distortion of pixels that occurs on the outside edges of wide-view pictures, making it appear that each pixel was captured by a camera directly overhead.

Getting it right - Google Earth Validates Content

THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 2012

Validating Land Cover Datasets with Geo-Wiki.org

This guest post is by Dr. Steffen Fritz, and Ian McCallum, researchers for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, an international research organization that conducts policy-oriented research on global problems.  

During the last decade, scientists have created several global land cover datasets. Comparison studies show that there are large spatial discrepancies between these products. One reason for these discrepancies is the lack of sufficient ground data for developing and validating these products. To address this issue, we have created the crowdsourcing tool Geo-Wiki.org, a web application using the Google Earth API and Google Earth plug-in. We chose Google Earth largely because of Google Earth’s navigation functionalities, including the ability to adjust the globe’s tilt and see the structure of the Earth’s surface, a significant advantage in recognizing land cover.

SONY Opens Up - Developers Rejoice?

DASH-ing Move by Sony–D.A.S.H. Goes Open Source

from xda-developers by egzthunder1

If you’ve followed XDA for a while, you will likely know that we have somewhat mixed feelings towards Sony and the attitude they used to (notice the use of past tense) take towards the developer community. If anyone remembers back to the legal battle against George Hotz, where a multi-million dollar corporation essentially went full force against an underground developer/hacker for letting people know how to run CFW (custom firmware) on their Playstation consoles, it was something that earned (and rightfully so) the rage and anger of the entire modder community. However, it seems that the Japanese conglomerate is turning around and trying a different approach towards this group of customers (us).

According to a recent post on Google+ by XDA Recognized Developer cyanogen, Sony has literally opened the flood gates by adding the Dynamic Android Sensor Hardware Abstraction Layer (DASH for short) to the world of open source. What this means essentially is that now developers have access to and can contribute towards the development and betterment of the code behind the sensor hardware’s inner workings. This is rather interesting, and quite a big step for manufacturers, since this kind of information is usually obtained via reverse engineering, espionage, or (normally) not at all.

Most developers out there who work on porting operating systems (like in this case, cyanogen) spend monumental amounts of time digging through bits and pieces of information that is scarcely available to try and fix bugs caused by incompatibilities between the custom code and the closed source code. So, this addition will have a benefit for both parties: on one side, developers will not have to spend countless hours trying to figure out how to make things work because they will have access to the actual code from the same people who make these. On the other hand, Sony will benefit from the added expertise of the modding community, as we have a bit of a reputation when it comes to finding bugs in manufacturer’s products. This goes hand in hand with the addition of the Xperia S to the device vendor list in the AOSP source.

This is indeed quite a change of heart by the same people who just a little over two years ago were in absolute denial and going after underground hackers, who ironically were their customers and a big driving force behind a percentage of their sales. Keep going down the right path, Sony! We are proud of you and we sincerely hope that the others will follow your example as well (ahem… HTC… we hope you are taking down notes). Last but not least, a big thumbs up for cyanogen and his team for opening Sony’s eyes. Way to go, guys!

You can find more information in the original article from Sony’s blog. You can also read cyanogen’s comments on his G+ page.

Want something published in the Portal? Contact any News Writer.

Garmin keeps up the PACE...

Garmin Adventures comes out of beta; BaseStation introduced too

from GPS Tracklog by Rich Owings

Garmin is releasing an update to BaseCamp this morning, officially rolling out Garmin Adventures in the process. This is the social/trip sharing platform that we gave you a sneak peek at last month. Here is how they describe it:

With Garmin Adventures you’ll get a free, interactive way to share your hikes, bike rides, road trips in car or motorcycle, dives and more. Using BaseCamp, you can combine track logs, waypoints, geotagged photos , YouTube® videos and more into an adventure that gets published online. Your photo’s and videos are either automatically placed on the map (when geotagged) or you can manually place them in the area you took them. You can then easily email a link to your adventure to friends and family, share it on social media sites or even post it in your favorite forums. BaseCamp even makes it easy to follow in the footsteps of other travelers by allowing you to search for and download adventures right to your compatible GPS device. Using BaseCamp will also allow you to leave comments on other’s adventures and even rate them. Do you think you have an adventure worth Five Stars? Download or update BaseCamp today, and turn your journeys into real Garmin Adventures!

Notably, they are also including something called BaseStation in the update, which they say allows you to “turn your laptop into a field command center for tracking multiple dogs and/or buddies (other Rino, Astro and Alpha GPS users). BaseStation allows you to view real-time GPS information, all on the larger display of your computer, with a compatible device serving as a router/antenna.”

FalconView - still relevant and adjusted

Smart Soils Testing... pH is important

Andreessen Horowitz Heads Down on the Farm With Latest Investment

from All Things Digital by Arik Hesseldahl

Everybody eats. It’s one of those fundamental truths I learned from “Sesame Street” in the 1970s.
Another is that most of what we eat comes out of the ground, unless it’s meat, in which case what it eats probably comes out of the ground.

Either way, that makes agriculture kind of a big deal everywhere in the world. So if you can develop a product that makes farming better, more efficient or less costly, you’re probably onto something, and that itself is sort of a big deal.

That’s kind of what the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is hoping happens to its latest investment, a company called Solum. AH is leading a $17 million Series B round of venture capital financing in the start-up, and general partner John O’Farrell is joining its board of directors. Existing investors including Khosla Ventures also participated.


So what does Solum (those are its founders pictured in the farm field to the right) do? O’Farrell put it in an interesting way in a blog post today. As his partner Marc Andreessen said recently, software is eating the world. O’Farrell says it might also help feed it.

All farmers have to test their soil every few years in order to figure out what kind of fertilizer the soil needs and how much. Most of the testing is done by small Mom-and-Pop operations that often turn back less than optimal, sometimes hit-or-miss data. The result is that farmers use too much fertilizer, which can get costly. And it’s not economical to use too much fertilizer. Look at China: Since the 1970s, it has boosted its agricultural output by 40 percent while boosting its user of fertilizers by 225 percent.

Solum is a software company that aims to disrupt the way that soil gets tested, and yield new, better data that can lead to more efficient applications of fertilizer and better yields.

That’s not a small thing. As the world’s population continues to grow, world food production is going to have to grow with it to accommodate demand. It has tripled in the last 100 years or so and will have to double again in the next 100 years

When out of WiFi - get out your cache

June 22, 2012

Google Earth A to Z: Cache

The cache system in Google Earth is something you rarely think about, but it's vitally important to how you use the product. By caching the imagery (and roads, buildings, etc), Google Earth is able to provide a very smooth experience once the data has loaded onto your system.


Google Earth keeps imagery in two types of caches to help improve performance. The Memory Cache holds imagery in your RAM, and is cleared each time you start up Google Earth. TheDisk Cache holds imagery on your hard drive for easier access. Incresing those numbers can help your performance. However, if you have a low amount of RAM or are low on hard drive space, you may be better off to decrease them a bit to give your computer a little more to work with.

Using the cache you can also use Google Earth offline to some degree. It's not as robust as the upcoming Google Maps offline features, but it's still pretty cool.

Frank summarized the system pretty well in this post from a few years ago. In part:

First, go to the menu item Tools->Options and select the "Cache" tab. You will not need to change thememory cache for viewing the cache (there is a trick for storing the cache with this setting - see below). The memory cache is set automatically based on your system's memory. You can make the disk cache size as large as 2000 MB (i.e. 2 Gigabytes). This will give you more data to work with. Then, you need to move to the area you want data for and zoom into that area. The most recent things you have looked at will be what's in your cache. It's important you zoom to the closest view you think you'll use. Turn on other layers for information you want cached (for example, 'Terrain', 'Roads' and 'Borders' - the more you select, the faster the cache wil fill). Also, make sure you save any KML files you might want to use in files on the same computer.

The more data you cache, the sooner the cache will fill, so be cautious. If you're going on a long trip, cache in high resolution imagery just the areas where you plan to use GE for close viewing. Avoid turning other layers if you only need imagery. It can be a pain to move around and capture an area of imagery at full high resolution and load up your cache properly.

As a general rule I turn the cache up as high as possible to help improve my experience with Google Earth, and in most cases I'd suggest you do the same.

Android Camera Tweaked

Jelly Bean Feature Closer Look: Android's Camera Receives A Few (Extremely Useful) Tweaks

from Android News, Reviews, Applications, Games, Phones, Devices, Tips, Hacks, Videos, Podcasts - Android Police by Liam Spradlin

One of the bigger changes we saw in the jump from Gingerbread/Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich was in the camera app. ICS not only brought a streamlined, more subtle design to an app that so badly needed it, but also introduced zero shutter-lag, meaning the time between pressing the shutter release and capturing a photo was pushed down to (almost) zero. In fact in many cases, the time between touch and capture is imperceptible. This was huge.

At today's Jelly Bean announcement, however, we learned that Jelly Bean treats users to even more enhancements to the camera app. While they are rather minor tweaks, they enhance the app's productivity and usability by a lot,something that seems to be a common thread in Jelly Bean's enhancements.

Future GLASS

Project Glass Is The Future Of Google

 

from TechCrunch by Peter Ha

Over the last few years one could easily say that Google had lost their way. They were no longer known for search. Somehow they’d turned into a company that acquired a series of nonsensical entities, launched half baked products that eventually hit the dead pool or just got into some really weird shit.

But last year that all started to change as the company announced that it would focus on its core products. Hindsight always being 20/20 it all makes sense. It’s like anything else, really. Spitball as many ideas as you possibly can just to see what sticks. And so whether it was by design or not, Project Glass is the future of Google. Not as a product that will make them billions of dollars but what it means for Google as a company and its future.

“The charter of Google X is to take bold risks and push the edges of technology beyond what they’ve been to where the future might be,” Sergey Brin told a small group of reporters duing demo of Project Glass. “We want you to be less of a slave to your devices. It’s been really liberating and I’m really excited to share it with all of you.”

Brin noted that Project Glass is what Google believes could be the next form factor of computing. As it stands now, many of us are willingly beholden to our smartphones with all the web browsing, twittering, pathing, instagramming and whatever else consuming most of our time. Human interaction has all but faded away. The fact that people play the “stacking game” is comical and cute but a sign of how infatuated we are with technology. Glass has the potential to buck that trend by “keeping people in the moment,” said Steve Lee, Product Manager for Glass. Brin also mentioned that Glass shouldn’t be used to fill idle time or to browse the web and that your phone or tablet perfectly fits those needs.

Dorky as they might look, Glass signals the first glimpse of how to integrate such invasive and important technology into our lives in a more seamless way. Isabelle Olsson, the industrial design guru on the team, says the design of Glass ensures “you can look into people’s eyes.” During my brief time with Sergey’s Glass, I can say that the display didn’t hinder my ability to see or look around. The display disappeared until I needed to see what was being shown. I might never have to pull my phone out again to reply to a text, get directions or snap a photo. So, yeah, I’ll deal with looking like a dork but don’t be surprised to see Glass integrated with existing glasses. Brin did mention that Google has been in talks with eyeglass makers and the like.

While the hardware is still in prototype phase, I overheard Brin say that he’s experienced up to six hours of juice off a single charge. But that can and will likely change based on usage (uploading photos, capturing video, etc.). Photos, for instance, will be stored locally and can by synced with the cloud later. Both Lee and Brin said that they’re working hard to optimize what data is being transmitted and stored both on the device and in the cloud to alleviate any battery woes. There may be settings that allow users to control the content being shared until you’re within reach of Wi-Fi or when you’ve plugged in your Glasses for the night. Babak Parviz, a contributor to Project Glass, said a previous build allowed him to query a voice search for the capital of China broadening his own knowledge base to everything that’s available on the Web.

I asked what actually worked on Glass now and Brin politely skirted the question by saying that they’re testing and implementing various features with each build to see what sticks. Facial recognition, while discussed and experimented with, doesn’t sound like it’s been compelling enough that the team wants to immediately integrate it.

Here’s what you won’t see in Glass: advertising. Brin stated pretty vehemently that they have no plans to integrate advertising into Glass and that the only plan is to simply sell the hardware, which will be “significantly” cheaper than the$1,500 Explorer Editions that were announced today. The Glass team says they’re focused on the quality of the experience and not making it as cheap as possible. (Thank gawd.)

Core Google apps like Gmail and Plus (Hangouts) are being tested now along with Android apps. What isn’t clear is whether or not the Android and Google apps teams are working with the team at Glass and vice versa.
So what was the reason for today’s announcement of the $1,500 Explorer Edition of Project Glass? It’s actually a slight pivot from what they’ve done in the past. For once, the typical Google way of pushing out half-done products might work to their advantage. Parviz, Lee and Brin emphasized how important it will be to involve the developer community to further push the platform before Glass becomes available to consumers some time next year. Speaking of ship dates, Brin says the consumer version will ship within a year of when the Explorer Editions ship. Developers will have access to a cloud-based API that is “pretty far along.”

Does this mean Google wants to compete with Microsoft or Apple toe-to-toe? No. Google will always be the weird kid in the corner who sporadically does something mindblowing. They’re not thinking about what’s going on now but what might happen in the distant future. Everything they’ve done up until now seems like a tiny spec of something larger and greater. The late Ray Bradbury said it best: “Life is trying things to see if they work.” And that appears to be what Google is doing.

Google Earth 3D

Glass detail

Now, to learn more about Google Glass, is another Googler, also wearing prototypes of the high-tech eyewear.

So, what’s inside? Lots of memory, powerful processor, touchpad on the side, button for taking pictures, microphones, camera, speaker and sensors like accelerometer, compass and gyroscopes.

The project started about two-and-a-half years ago to get the technology into a small pair of wearable glasses.

“This developer community is going to be key to us.”
Google announces Glass Explorer Edition, available for preorder only for U.S.-based I/O attendees.
“It’s going to be rough around the edges,” Brin said. “You have to want to be on the bleeding edge. That’s what this is designed for.”
11:36 am: It will be $1,500, and we plan on shipping it to you early next year.
“This is really new technology, and we really want to get all of you to help shape it,” Brin said.
11:37 am: Now, Sergey gives it back to Vic Gundotra, who I think was talking about Google+ or something …



11:38 am: Undeterred, Gundotra is showing a video of events. Meanwhile, the crowd is all deciding whether they can afford to order a pair of $1,500 experimental glasses without breaking the bank or being killed by a significant other.

Brazil gets Motorla tough

Motorola to release rugged Defy Pro in Brazil

 Fri July 6, 2012

Combined keyboard and touchscreen handset dubbed Lifeproof

Motorola is reportedly bringing the Defy Pro to Brazil. The combined touchscreen and full-keyboard handset is dubbed "Lifeproof" by the company, being both dust-proof and water resistant. The 2.7-inch display is also protected with scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass, making the handset fairly similar to both the ruggedized Defy+ and the Droid Pro.

Running Android—most likely version 2.3—the smartphone will have three different “instrumental dashboards” to switch between, excluding the normal home screen: Outdoor View, Hiking View, and Workout View. Although the processor and screen resolution are not mentioned, GPS, Wi-Fi, 2GB of storage upgradable to 32GB, and a five-megapixel camera are confirmed.

Prospective customers in Brazil will be able to purchase the handset from July 15. Release details for other countries are currently unknown. [via Engadget]

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/07/06/combined.keyboard.and.touchscreen.handset.dubbed.lifeproof/#ixzz20SjEYGaX

Smooth as Glass

Project Glass: What we know so far

Aug. 14, 2012 (10:00 am) By: Russell Holly

Despite knowing full well that we’re months away from the very expensive developer preview, with another long wait after than for an actual retail product, there’s no shortage of people who would gladly empty their bank accounts to get their hands on Google’s coveted Project Glass.

In terms of bleeding edge hardware wrapped in a unique new concept, you can’t get much more interesting than Project Glass. This wearable computer packed into a pair of eyeglasses is being kept pretty tightly under wraps by the Googlers working on it, but several members of the project have been in Hangouts recently with I/O attendees that joined the Glass Explorers program. As a result, we’ve been able to put together a rough idea of what powers these devices and how they work.

Hardware

As it stands right now, the hardware inside Project Glass is still changing and we know that everything is being fine-tuned and tested constantly. Currently the hardware inside Project Glass units are pretty close to what you would see in a Samsung Galaxy Nexus without the cellular radio. During one of the Hangouts a project member explained that the current iteration is “basically a wifi Galaxy Nexus”.

As things like battery life are being adjusted, the clock speed of the TI OMAP 4460 processor is also being adjusted. Either way, this is hardware that the teams at Google have had plenty of experience with.

Project Glass as worn by David Cardinal

The camera on these units is an unknown variable, since it is one of the pieces that is being heavily tweaked until it delivers the best possible experience. Following the recent Google+ posts from Project Glass members, the camera has really changed a lot. Shots have been posted with a myriad of resolutions, in some posts discussing new features like a timed shot or rapidly repeating shots. Google’s big focus in their early promotion of Glass has been the ability to share things from your perspective, so it makes sense that the camera is receiving nonstop attention.

There’s been very little mention of on-board storage. In fact, during several hangouts now Project Glass members have advised developers to focus on apps that “connect to cloud services and exchange information, but not run locally.” In fact, the system will rely heavily on an internet connection for most of the real functionality and there’s been no mention of an Offline Mode. There’s certainly not going to be any removable storage, either, since the only port on the device is the microUSB port used to charge it.

Most members of the Project Glass team, as well as ExtremeTech’s David Cardinal have said that these units weigh about the same as a good pair of sunglasses, and they are constantly improving the battery life so that we will be able to wear them all day by the time they come out.

Software

Project Glass is not running Android… or ot least, it’s not running Android as we currently know it. None of the Glass team members were willing to discuss the operating system, but the apps that were running on the device already were familiar. After the demonstration at Google I/O this year, and again during the Hangout meetings, it became clear that the devices were capable of running Google + Hangouts from the device. In fact, several of the team members have joined Hangouts from the Glass units and demonstrated that they could see everyone in the Hangout and were completely capable of participating as though they were on the mobile app.

The Project Glass platform will likely never be looked at as a branch of Android, but the developer team has mentioned that the Glass Explorer units will be flexible. Developers have been told they will “be able to flash the device to build whatever you want for it, such as client apps”. It seems likely based on that statement that much of the Project Glass software will be Open Source in order for developers to take Project Glass and use it for specific purpose development.

Navigation

As pretty as the original “one day” video that Google released was, it intentionally left us with way more questions than answers. One of the biggest was navigation. Will it be voice-controlled, gesture-controlled, or use some other form of navigation? As it turns out, the side of the device is a touch panel, and that is used for most of the navigation. Swipe gestures on the trackpad control basic navigation of both the OS and apps, and a single button on the top of the device serves as the action button for everything else you would do while wearing the glasses.

Project Glass is designed to be on your head at all times, but not necessarily meant to be on that whole time. A single gesture — a quick jerk up with your head — turns off the screen and sets the device into a sleep mode. To turn the device back on, you need to press the button on the side. It is unclear if more gestures will be added, or if gesture control is something developers will have access to, but the feature allows you to quickly dismiss whatever it was you were looking at and returns you to reality.

Seeing into the future

Project Glass is still so far away even for those who were able to participate in the Glass Explorers program, but it is clear that Google’s X Team is filled with people truly dedicated to making this experience really unique. We’ve seen plenty of companies try to strap gadgets to our face over the years, but Project Glass is the first that seems to understand that the most successful gadget in this category will be the one that you don’t feel the need to take off.

Pipeline Explosion Texas

Sony A99

Sony A99, first translucent lens camera with full-frame
updated 08:21 am EDT, Tue August 28, 2012

Sony A99 to push the technology envelope forward

The forthcoming Sony Alpha 99 is expected to be Sony’s first full-frame sensor camera that also utilizes the company’s single-lens translucent system, according to specs obtained by Sony Alpha Rumors. The new Alpha flagship camera will sport a 24.3-megapixel full-frame sensor with an ISO range of 100-25,600. Additional key features include a 1/8000 maximum shutter speed, 14-bit RAW capability, 10fps continuous shooting and 102-point auto-focus system powered by a new Sony Bionz imaging engine.

The camera will also incorporate a 2360k dots XGA OLED viewfinder along with a 3-inch 921k dots LCD screen. It will be capable of shooting video at 60fps when shooting in 1080p and an auto HDR capability. Its translucent lens also gives it the ability to use phase detection autofocus when shooting video, or when in continuous shooting mode.

Additional technologies built into the A99 by Sony include a new multi-segment low pass filter, photodioxide expansion tech, light concentration tech, selective noise reduction and an ultrasonic anti dust system. Additional accessories to ship with the A99 include a battery grip, flash, remote control and microphone.

The Sony A99 is expected to be unveiled early next month and start shipping in October.




Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/08/28/sony.a99.to.push.the.technology.envelope.forward/#ixzz24rFLlqra

Sony's NEX 5R?

Sony NEX 5R specs reportedly leaked ahead of tomorrow's launch

from Engadget by Daniel Cooper

Sony Alpha Rumors is claiming to have a big pile of specs for what's presumed to be the NEX-5R, so with a fistful of sodium chloride at the ready, here goes. The site believes the new mirrorless ILC will pack a 16.1-megapixel APS-C sensor, low-light sensitivity up to 25,600 and the same tiltable three-inch screen we saw in the NEX-F3. It's also saying that we can expect to see 99-point phase-detection and 25 contrast autofocus points, with 1920 x 1080 HD video recording at 60p and a battery that'll take 400 pictures on a single charge. If those facts have gotten your purchasing-fingers twitchy, we'll be at Sony's press conference tomorrow to find out all the gory details

Almost baked... Shazam?

Insert Coin: Public Lab DIY Spectrometer wants to be the 'Shazam of materials'

from Engadget by Terrence O'Brien

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line.

Spectrometers are a pretty invaluable piece of lab equipment. They make it rather simple to identify substances by analyzing the light that they absorb. Problem is, for the hobby scientist, they typically cost thousands of dollars. Jeffrey Yoo Warren's latest Kickstarter project aims to put these powerful tools in the hands of your average Joe, with an open-source DYI model, where the key ingredient is a shard of DVD-R. Using that piece of plastic in conjunction with black paper and a webcam, his $35 kit allows anyone to quickly and easily reveal the spectral fingerprint of any substance. There's even a $5 model that works in conjunction with a free Android app, turning your smartphone into a legit lab tool. The goal, ultimately, is to build up a library of substances that can easily be matched with samples caught in the wild -- in essence, to build a "Shazam for materials." The original inspiration was an effort to identify contaminants left behind by the BP oil spill, but Warren also touts its ability to reveal hidden dyes in laundry detergents and to differentiate wines or olive oils. For those with grander ambitions, a $300 pledge will score you a pre-built and calibrated desktop spectrometer, complete with pyrex dishes and a full spectrum lamp. To help fund this backyard (or back pocket) science revolution, hit up the source link.
Continue reading Insert Coin: Public Lab DIY Spectrometer wants to be the 'Shazam of materials'

MPEG VC1, and H.264 can be had for a couple of songs...

Raspberry Pi lands MPEG-2 and VC-1 decoding through personal licenses, H.264 encoding and CEC tag along

from Engadget by Alexis Santos

Making the Raspberry Pi affordable involved some tough calls, including the omission of MPEG-2 decoding. Licensing fees alone for the video software would have boosted the board's price by approximately 10 percent. Now, after many have made media centers with the hardware, the foundation behind the project has whipped up a solution to add the missing codec. For $3.79, users can purchase an individual MPEG-2 license for each of their boards on the organization's online store. Partial to Microsoft's VC-1 standard? Rights to using Redmond's codec can be purchased for just under two bucks. H.264 encoding is also in the cards since OpenMax components needed to develop applications with the functionality are now enabled by default in the device's latest firmware. With CEC support thrown into the Raspbmc, XBian and OpenELEC operating systems, a single IR remote can control a Raspberry Pi, a TV and other connected gadgets. If you're ready to load up your Pi with its newfound abilities, hit the source link below.
Filed under: Misc

Raspberry Pi lan

R U CTIZN SENSOR?

Wireless Sensor Tags alert you to movement and temperature changes, fit on your keyring

from Engadget by Jamie Rigg

There's plenty of sensor gear around for hobbyists to play with, but not so many polished products for the monitoring-obsessed. Cao Gadgets is attempting to fill that niche with its functionally named Wireless Sensor Tags -- small devices which monitor movement and temperature, notifying you if anything's amiss. A magnetometerregisters movement by changes in its orientation, and can inform you of door openings or similar disturbances, while the temperature triggers are based on upper or lower thresholds. The $15 sensors (or $12 if you want three or more) have a battery life that should last several years depending on their setup, but there is one catch -- you also need the Tag Manager hub ($50), which plugs into your router via Ethernet. It keeps in frequent contact with any subordinates in its 200-foot range, and if after several attempts it finds one MIA, a warning can be sent in case any of your home guards have walked or fallen asleep. The tags also have inbuilt beepers which can be pinged to track down any rogue possessions they're partnered with, like your keys.

A lot of thought has been put into micromanaging the tags, which are customizable through web-based, Android or iOS apps, and will send out alerts via email, Twitter, or push notifications on slates and phones (text-to-speech is available if you're too lazy to read). If you're into your data, you can also access trigger statistics from the software, complete with graphs. The home monitoring kit is available now, and instead of crashing your browser with too many embeds, we've decided to point you to the source below for the half-dozen demo vids.

Flattery is best - GoPro for

Sparkfun - Makes GoPro for $160?

We've been slowly adding more cameras to our sensors category and we finally have a full HD option for you to hack on. The HackHD is essentially a stripped-down GoPro. It can do full 1080P at 30 FPS, run from a battery and is easily controlled from a microcontroller. It's got a wide-angle lens and can even be enclosed in GoPro enclosures to make it water proof. You can see some footage we took using this camera here.

HackHD - 1080p Camera Module
SEN-11418 

Description: Capturing high-definition video is a challenge for any project, but a great way to see where you're project has been, especially if it's something like an autonomous robot or a high-altitude balloon. The downside is that traditional video cameras can be heavy, difficult to mount, and triggering them to record can require some hacking. So why not use a video camera that was designed for hacking? The HackHD is a bare-bones camera that records 1080P video at 30 frames-per-second. Just attach a 3.7V Li-Po battery or other 3.7V source and a pushbutton and you have a fully functional camcorder. Because recording is triggered with a simple button-press, it can easily be controlled using a microcontroller or simple sensor.

Video is recorded onto a microSD card (not included) and the HackHD supports cards up to 32GB. The HackHD also has a composite video output which can be viewed while it's recording as well as an external audio input which overrides the on-board microphone when used. An LED can be attached to the LED output as an indicator of the camera's status.

Note: To save you a few bucks, we're selling just the camera by itself. The included instruction manual mentions a battery holder, pushbutton, LED, SD card, etc. but they are not included. You probably have those things laying around, why pay twice?

Dimensions: 65 x 40 x 25mm

Features:

• Resolution: 1080P HD
• Frame Rate: 30 FPS (frames per second)
• Coding: H.264
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• File Format: AVI
• Storage: External microSD Card (2GB - 32GB)
• Lens: 2.5mm (EFL), F2.8, 160 degree (diagonal) wide angle lens
• Control Input: Single contact monetarily switch
• Video Output: Composite video
• Status Indicator Output: Single color LED driver
• Power Supply: External 3.7V, 1100mAH minimum
• Power Output: 3.7V DC, 500mAH
• Working Temperature: -10degC to +45degC
• Storage Temperature: -20degC to +70degC

Documents:
User Manual
Sample Video
GoPro Comparison Video

Micor-PhoneSatas - Powered by Andorid...

Android Phones Will Power NASA's New Fleet of Mini-Satellites

Hoping to inject new life into low-cost space exploration, NASA's 'PhoneSat' program will launch a series of Google Nexus One–controlled mini-satellites into space later this year.

By Leah Yamshon, PCWorld    Aug 23, 2012 7:00 pm

PhoneSat 1.0 during high-altitude balloon test. Photo courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center, 2011.While most of the recent media attention on NASA has understandably focused on the Curiosity rover on Mars, that’s not the only experiment that the space and aeronautics research agency has in the works. A team at NASA’s Ames Research center in Moffett Field, California, is working on the future launch of miniature satellites constructed with Android-powered Nexus One smartphones at the helm. Dubbed “PhoneSat,” this project is part of a larger experiment called the Small Spacecraft Technology Program that incorporates small consumer electronics into working nanosatellites.

The PhoneSat launch has no firm date, but three PhoneSat units will be rocket-bound sometime in late 2012. (Hopefully, we’ll start seeing Tweets from PhoneSat’s currently quiet Twitter account.) However, there’s much to be excited about with the launch fast approaching. Here’s what we know so far.
PhoneSat’s Two-Design Plan

According to information provided by NASA’s Space Technology Program, the team has built two nanosatellite prototype models, which were originally going to be launched at different times. The first model, PhoneSat 1.0, has minimal functionality—the team wants to see if a mini-satellite with a smartphone can survive a short stint in space. A major gauge of success will be whether the satellite can send back operational health and picture data while in space. Besides a Nexus One, the main pieces of the satellite will include external batteries and an external radio beacon. A watchdog circuit will monitor the system and reboot the Nexus if necessary.

Assembly of PhoneSat 1.0. Photo courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center, 2011.All of this will be packaged in a 10-by-10-by-10-cm CubeSat shell—not much bigger than a coffee cup—and three of these units will be manufactured. Each unit clocks in at an impressively low 4 pounds. And what chariot will carry this mini-sat? An Antares rocket, a low-Earth-orbiting rocket that can carry up to 15,000 pounds.

A more advanced model, the PhoneSat 2.0, will improve on the capabilities of PhoneSat 1.0 by using a newer Samsung Nexus S; the satellite’s design will also include a two-way S-band radio, solar arrays, and a GPS receiver. The radio will command the satellite from the ground, while the solar panels will enable the unit to embark on a mission with a long duration. Also built into the PhoneSat 2.0 design are magnetorquer coils (electromagnets that interact with Earth’s magnetic field) and reaction wheels to control the unit’s orientation in space.

According to a NASA public relations representative, two PhoneSat 1.0 models and one PhoneSat 2.0 are scheduled to launch aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket later this year.
Strides So Far

The PhoneSat team has been preparing for this mission for a few years now by running tests to push the Nexus One’s limits. In July 2010, two Nexus Ones were launched on rockets as a preliminary test of how the phones will handle high speeds and high altitude. One rocket crashed and destroyed the smartphone; the other landed with the Nexus One perfectly intact. PhoneSat 1.0 has also been tested in a thermal-vacuum chamber, on vibration and shock tables, and on high-altitude balloons, all with great success.

The philosophy behind these launches is quite similar to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial mindset—to “launch the lowest-cost and easiest to build satellites ever flown in space,” as stated in aPhoneSat flight demonstration document. Each PhoneSat prototype costs about $3500 to build, and the NASA engineers use commercial off-the-shelf hardware in their designs, none of which have been modified. The engineers have not created any new technologies for this mission—they’re working entirely with widely available products.
What’s Next for PhoneSat?

Not only do these low-cost units show off how run-of-the-mill consumer devices can be used in larger space exploration experiments, they also will decrease development costs for future NASA small-spacecraft projects. The team plans to use the PhoneSats in future missions involving moon exploration, low-cost Earth observations, and testing of new technologies and components for space flight. Another mission scheduled for 2013 plans to use the PhoneSat 2.0 to conduct heliophysics measurements.

Totally Coolpix Android from Nikon

 Nikon Coolpix S800c Android camera first look

By R Butler | Published Aug 22, 2012 | Product Reviews & Previews

Preview based on a pre-production Coolpix S800c

Smartphones have quickly become the most serious challenge to face the conventional compact digital camera since they first emerged onto the market. It's no exaggeration to say that all the big camera makers are becoming desperate to develop camera models that can stand up to this challenge. Nikon's response is the Coolpix S800c - the first camera from a major manufacturer to be openly based on the Android mobile operating system.
There are several reasons why smartphones have become so compelling as photographic tools: they're devices that people tend to have with them at all times and they are well connected to mobile data services to allow uploading and sharing of images. An additional benefit has come from the emergence of apps and the platforms through which they're sold which have encouraged third-party developers to create software adding new capabilities to the devices they run on. From Instagram to Angry Birds, apps have encouraged people to use their Smartphones for all sorts of things the hardware makers couldn't have predicted.
This seemingly boundless flexibility comes in stark contrast to conventional cameras, which tend to offer the same capabilities and features on the day they're consigned to a dusty shelf as they had when they were taken out of the box. The S800c is a full Android 2.3 (known as Gingerbread) device, meaning it can run any apps that an equivalent smartphone could offer - so you can run Photoshop Touch to spruce-up your images, rather than being dependent on the manufacturer-supplied processing options. For that matter, there's nothing to stop you passing the time with a quick game of Temple Run or Fruit Ninja.
Compact cameras do still have some advantages though - they tend to have larger sensors (which means better image quality, particularly in lower light), and they tend to have optical zooms, giving greater photographic flexibility. They also tend to come with removable memory, meaning you can easily expand and swap-out the storage of your camera - something most smartphones don't allow. The S800c offers the same 10x zoom lens and 16MP backlit CMOS sensor as the Coolpix S6300, meaning you get a proper compact camera as well as the capabilities of a fully-functioning tablet computer. For perspective, the S6300 had a list price of $199 at launch, compared to the $349 Nikon is asking for the S800c.

Nikon Coolpix S800c key specifications

• 16MP 1/2.3"-type BSI CMOS sensor
• 25-250mm equivalent F3.2-5.8 lens
• 3.5" WVGA OLED touchscreen
• Android v2.3 operating system
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS
• 2GB of internal memory (690MB of this for Apps)
• Up to 8fps continuous shooting
• 1080p30 video