Next Generation of Android Camera API...

Samsung Galaxy NX brings Android to interchangeable lens cameras

I guess this shouts “game on”?  It is generally known that Android as a design started as a camera control system that morphed into the open source and dominating hand-held communicator OS with digital camera as a central core feature.  Not certain exactly what this is going to offer our kit but I feel there is an opportunistic moment right in front of us.

GizMag June 22, 2013  By Simon Crisp

They have a second camera, the NX-1 just now available,  that does not express Android as the running OS but what it does provide is as state of the art imager and superior 4K stream and recorder as there is on the market. Its feature set has rattled SONY, Canon and Nikon… the industry stunned that Samsung’s drive into hybrid mirror-less still/video has yielded such a technical disruption.  Most importantly internally it offers some of the first 4K content generated with a H.265 compression.  H.265 is the next generation of compression technique that allows its 4K frame resolution to be distributed across the ether-net of mobile phones, home and office at the same bit-rate as 1080p and H.264 compression.  The compression requires more horsepower to negotiate the decode process and  very few viewers are now able to handle this. The H.265 is squarely in the MPEG-LA group.  Its correleant as an open source solution is a VP9 from Google’s effort to help with aggregated internet traffic. It is only recently 4K monitors have come to market.  What we are quite interested in is the extraction of the 4K frame to JPEG and then how that content can be sorted and processed. 

Camera FV-5 Updated With Support for Android 5.0 Camera API - Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/12/10/camera-fv-5-updated-with-support-for-android-5-0-camera-api/

via Digg Reader

Precision Ag Monitoring - 5-Channel Global Shutter RedEdge(tm)

RedEdge™ is much more than just a camera, sharing more design features with Earth imaging satellites than it does with standard consumer cameras. Industrial imaging sensors provide high dynamic range in varying lighting conditions while removing artifacts commonly seen in drone video and imagery. Coupled with MicaSense Data Services, RedEdge™ provides a complete imaging, processing, and analysis system ready for integration with any platform.

Need a closer look? Unplug your RedEdge™ and go handheld. An integrated shutter button lets you take close-ups of areas of interest, and with the optional GPS module, maintain geo-tagging and time-stamping of all of your multispectral images.

• More than just pretty pictures - simultaneous capture of five discrete spectral bands optimized for crop health data gathering.
• Fly fast - we can keep up! Capturing all bands once per second enables faster flight speeds and lower altitude captures.
• Distortion-free - global shutter design creates distortion-free images on every platform.
• Single card - tired of juggling multiple cards? With RedEdge™, one SD card stores all images and data for easy data transfer.
• Metadata included - all image files are time-stamped and geo-tagged, no third party tools or autopilot logs required.
• Fully calibrated - leave your integrating sphere at home, we have you covered. Every camera comes fully calibrated for precise, repeatable measurements every time.
• Stand-alone - with external GPS connections and self-triggering capability, easily collect geo-tagged data without any connections to the host vehicle.
• Data at your fingertips - With Wi-Fi built in, preview images and change settings from your phone, tablet, and computer.
• Fully integrated - our convenient host interfaces allow tight integration with any platform, enabling full data capture by providing GPS data and power.
• No moving parts - solid-state design means nothing to break on those dusty days or the occasional harsh landing.

Weight	190 g (6.7 oz)
Dimensions	4.8” x 2.9” x 1.5” (12.2 cm x 7.4 cm x 3.8 cm)
Spectral Bands	Narrowband filters for Blue, Green, Red, Red Edge, Near-Infrared
Ground Sample Distance	5.4 cm/pixel (per band) at 200 ft (60 m) AGL
Capture Speed	1 capture per second (all bands), 12-bit RAW