Category: Imaging

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Connected Objects Imaging

Fireside seeks to rekindle interest in the digital photo frame

With smartphones, tablets, and all of our other devices containing cameras both portable and capable enough to take quality photos and video anywhere we’d like, we’ve amassed a glut of media that we may enjoy having, but unfortunately don’t get to enjoy. As much as we’d like to go down memory lane more often than we do, finding, organizing, and displaying all of our media is a time-consuming process. Digital picture frames do exist, but they’re usually of shoddy construction and the user still has to upload everything manually.

Fireside combines smarts and beauty in order to organize, curate, and display all of your photos from disparate devices all on one slickly-designed, HD frame. The product does this by backing up photos and videos taken normally on any iOS or Android device connected with the Fireside app. Once cloud-side, they are made searchable with auto-tagging and filtering based on criteria like time, date, and age. After, algorithms and personal input are applied to show users contextually relevant content, like the birthday of a friend or family member.

Celebrating a holiday? Fireside will display previous holiday festivities.) Similar to Pandora, users can create stations based on keywords to add an element of pleasant unpredictability, giving all your content the chance to be enjoyed. Constructed from materials like chrome and glass, its minimal design can be mounted on a wall and multiples can be kept at other people’s homes to easily keep them up-to-date with users and their families. A black or white Fireside is going for $399 and includes one year of cloud service. It has an expected delivery date of June 2015 provided it hits its funding goal of $100,000.

The Fireside really backs other digital photo frames on the market into a corner. If the intelligent cloud service that supports the product doesn’t turn out to be a bust, then the Fireside will have a leg up against other frames like the Flink, Famatic, and most notably the Nixplay. Although the Nixplay can interface with every social network and also receive emails of photos from friends and family, its still manual at its core. Ultimately, the Fireside’s automation claims along with its sleek design will be impossible to ignore.

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Cell Phone Accessories Imaging

Stand-Pod slips a phone stand and mini-tripod into your wallet

For those times when a person wants to use their iPhone for a selfie or be in the photo or video they are making with friends, the only way to do that is to have a stranger hit the button for you. That’s why Stand-Pod was created. The small phone mount allows the user to position their phone, set it up in an ideal location and use their delay to create those photo or video memories. Stand-Pod is compatible with a wide range of phones. It appears to fold flat when not in use and is made of high resistant polypropylene plastic, so it should be pretty easy to tote around. Stand-Pod should provide some hardy competition for ClearShot, which is now on the market. This campaign seeks to raise $45,000 CAD (~$39,900 USD) by December 12, 2014. For $16 CAD (~$14 USD), backers get the single pack Stand-Pod with an expected delivery of March 2015.

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Imaging

Intrepid large format camera ditches digital, embraces gorgeous photos

Many new digital cameras use filters and special techniques to make the photos they take look vintage. There’s something about old photographs that evokes a sense of nostalgia and old world charm into our minds. The Intrepid 4X5 Camera is a redesigned version of an old camera model, updating technology that is over 100 years old. Made out of wood, the camera is lightweight and can be folded up easily for maximum portability. Intrepid is a film camera and uses the 4×5 format because of its depth and clarity of image. In digital format, 4×5 would be considered HDR to give digital lovers a sense of its sharpness. It’s able to capture both portrait and landscape photographs. While this British camera looks very cool and the campaign shows the magnificent images it can produce, many may opt for the convenience of digital with some old-time filters instead. Lenses and film are sold separately which also may act as a deterrent for backers. Still, camera enthusiasts will surely appreciate the mix of old and new technology to make a cool final product. Another bonus: the bellows come in different colors! One Intrepid will cost backers £129 (~$203) for delivery in March 2015 (not a bad price at all). Intrepid is looking to raise £27,000 (~$42,500) on Kickstarter.

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Imaging

Filmbo is there to capture your extreme stunts

In this day and age, if there isn’t a tweet, status update, image, or video of something you’ve done, it may not have ever happened for all accounts and purposes. The Filmbo dock works with iPhone 4s to 6 Plus models to automatically track and capture either photos or video of movement so that someone else doesn’t have to.

Weighing in at a tiny .35lbs, the Filmbo can swivel 360° and tilt 20° to provide in-focus, clear shots to show off a goal you’ve made or a trick that you’ve finally nailed. Its three recording modes allow for versatility in which kind of images or video you’d want: robotic video mode follows you and continuously captures video, its moment photo mode tracks you specifically and takes photos when it senses big changes in movement or speed, and robotic time-lapse mode follows you and starts time-lapse photos automatically. The device sports a one click activation and lasts for up to eight hours if you don’t consider that it can charge smartphones, too. The Filmbo is fantastic for sports, but oddly only supports iOS and can’t attach a GoPro. Let’s hope that it can at least stand up to the rough wear and tear it will likely experience. One Filmbo is currently going for $99 before it shoots up to its MSRP of $169. The company is looking to raise $70,000 to have the product in the wild by April 2015.

Categories
Cycling Imaging

INDIGLO saves handlebar space by doubling up action cam mounts

Bicycles are fast becoming the favored mode of transportation in large, urban cities. With this increased favor comes the inevitable support of both larger companies and DIY crowd in making their ride more effective and useful. In particular, the glut of GPS devices and action cameras like the GoPro have offered riders ways to make their rides more efficient and plain fun but at the cost of handlebar space — there can only be so many attachments!

With their dual handlebar mount, INDIGLO is letting you reclaim your handlebar space and get back to riding comfortably. The mount is installed without much fuss by just using the flexible clamp bands; the top being compatible with a wide-range of Garmin GPS devices and the bottom compatible with GoPro, Garmin Virb, and Shimano Cameras. Users can also install the INDIGLO5, the company’s own flashlight as well. What the INDIGLO dual mount does, it does simply. The campaign is hoping to raise $5,000 AUD (~$4,300 USD) for success. The product is going for $50 AUD with a ship date of February 2015.

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Imaging

Elephant Steady is a smart, affordable smartphone video stabilizer

Amateur movie makers around the world have learned that while a smartphone may be a great tool to have on hand in terms of video quality and convenience, the shaky, unprofessional shots can be distracting. Quality video requires a stabilizer, and a stabilizer should have some personality.

Elephant Steady was a project that received funding on Kickstarter and Campfire, but developer Adplus was disappointed that the stretch goal to offermultiple colors was unmet, so they’ve taken to Indiegogo to offer five new colors.

With a variety of different colors available, backers are able to vote for their favorites, and the five colors that receive the most votes will be created for distribution and sent out to backers. Adplus is asking to supplement their original campaign with $10,000 to customize colors. Backers can get their Elephant Steady for $79 to ship out in February 2015.

The Elephant Steady itself seems like a handy stabilizer for iPhones, with a solid construction, and anyone who missed out on the first campaign should check this out. Starting a new campaign to fund an unmet stretch goal might not yield the most positive results however, especially for something as superficial as new colors.

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Imaging

Joey lets you capture video in the round

With high definition and video cameras in the pockets of the majority of people around the world, it’s a wonder that the way video is recorded and how people interact with it has gone largely unchanged.

Kogeto, developers of the successful Dot lens for the iPhone 4 that allowed full 360-degree panoramic video, are now presenting the Joey, a stand-alone video camera that captures the same kind of video in a much crisper resolution. With no color distortion or seams like other full-panoramic cameras, the Joey takes shockingly crisp video that viewers can rotate or spin to their heart’s content, making no two views alike and offering a much more immersive viewing experience. Kogeto needs $40,000 to begin the manufacturing of Joey. Joey will start changing video capture in December for backers who pledge $850.

Joey offers an exciting development for both movie makers and viewers, turning film-making into a more interactive and user-defined experience. As if that wasn’t enough, the video Joey takes looks as sharp as technology will allow right now, with 4K resolution. Filmmakers both amateur and professional should be putting this device on their Christmas list.

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Imaging

GoKnuckles is is a GoPro stabilizer that packs a punch

The GoPro changed the quality and capabilities of what a person could do on their own in terms of shooting video, and its effects are felt not just in the footage, but in the accessories that followed.

GoKnuckles are a new kind of handheld mount for the GoPro HERO camera, designed to be visually appealing as well as functional. Using a rubberized plastic and resembling brass knuckles, GoKnuckles are worn over the fingers so that by making a fist, the camera is leveled off and can get the ideal action shot while still keeping hands free to do or hold anything. GoWorx wants to raise $4,500 to make GoKnuckles a reality. Backers can get a set of GoKnuckles in November in either blue or orange for $15, more than 10% off the final retail price.

This is a product that certain has a sense of style to it, and the ability to still have open hands is a great add-on, but the limitations as far as how close the camera sits compared to other similar products makes this far from being the only mount someone would need.

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Imaging

fps1000 keeps the price low for the super slow-mo pro

If you haven’t yet seen the YouTube video of a shark shooting out of water as it goes after its prey, you should — it’s a beaut. But that piece of fantastic videography wouldn’t have been possible without the wonders of high-speed imaging, something that would be more widespread if it weren’t for the complex setups and intense memory demands of the equipment necessary to capture it. Just a 1 second video at VGA resolution and 1,000 fps requires an incredible 400 MBytes of very high speed memory  — and that’s just on the lower end of things!

Compelled to find a more accessible solution, inventor Graham Rowan labored to create the fps1000, a super portable camera capable of taking videos of between 75fps and 18,000fps. The camera also features a touch screen LCD screen along with the standard C mount so that a wide variety of lenses can be equipped. There are three different versions of the fps1000: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Their prices range from £349 to £999, which may still seem pricey but is much better than comparable setups. With the campaign having blown past it’s funding goal of £20,000, many seem to agree.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Imaging

Little Occhio pairs with your smartphone to explore the microscopic

Many inventors and companies alike are catching onto the smartphone’s potential as an intermediary between the people who use them and the microscopic world alien to us. Smartphones can add a new dimension to a microscope, freeing us from the shackles of bulky, cumbersome equipment and letting us wander into the world and discover nature as it was truly intended — provided, of course, we have the right tools to do so. Luckily, Little Occhio is aiming to be that tool.

This product is a portable micro-cam that lets users see the world around them, wherever they happen to be. Users can then share what they see with an app that transmits photos and videos at 30fps to up to 10 smart devices at range of up to 50ft, making Little Occhio equally versatile for families and classrooms alike. The app also acts as a control, letting you focus the camera among other adjustments. It does this with its own built-in Ad-Hoc Wi-fi mode, generating its own connection so that smart devices in the vicinity can connect. In addition, LED lights are prominently featured as a way to continue discovering more as night sets in so long as the built-in rechargeable battery is powered enough to keep going.

The Little Occhio has promise, despite its $145 price tag. The upside to the price, though, are the included sharing features which trump other similar products like the Microscobe and the Micro Phone Lens. The company is looking for a cool $35,000 to start manufacturing — let’s hope it goes off without a hitch.