Thursday, June 14, 2007

Kodak High Sensitivity Image Sensor Tech

Kodak Image Sensor Solutions has today announced a new Color Filter Array (CFA) layout (and image processing path) as an alternative to the widely used Bayer pattern which should provide higher sensitivity. This new layout features one 'panchromatic pixel' (monochrome) to every colored pixel (red, green or blue) and there are three proposed layouts. Kodak ISS are presenting this as a technology solution which can be applied to any size, megapixel count or type (CCD / CMOS) of sensor. Kodak claim a one to two stop improvement in sensitivity, the tradeoff is of course color resolution which is effectively a quarter of the traditional Bayer pattern. This interesting development will of course only be proven when we see it actually implemented and we can compare it to traditional Bayer.

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How To: Track your Flickr page views with Statr

Flickr-Statr.pngEver wondered how many people are perusing your Flickr photos? Statr is a web-based application that will track the amount of page views your Flickr account receives.

Statr for Flickr allows you to track and plot page views statistics for your Flickr account. Graphs are automatically updated on a daily basis and can be linked from external websites.

Getting started with Statr is a breeze -- all you need to do is grant Statr read access to your images. It takes Statr a day or so to collect data before it will begin displaying your page views. Unfortunately, Statr is a little simplistic and only displays page views. It doesn't give you any information about uniqueness of visitors, visitor frequency, visitor location, etc. If you're proud of your Flickr traffic, Statr also generates some in-line HTML so you can showoff your Flickr traffic graph.

Statr for Flickr [LinuxInside.org]

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Researchers use magnetic fields to manipulate light

We've seen magnetics used in everything from closet improvements to insomnia treatments, but researchers at the University of Alberta and the United States Naval Research Laboratory have found that "by manipulating electron spin using magnetic fields, they can turn off and on light that's being guided through metals." By looking deeper into the fields of plasmonics and spintronics, the gurus have discovered that this on-off light switch could be used for tasks such as routing infrared light in optical communications or processing radio signals in cell phones. Additionally, this system could potentially decrease power requirements for the devices it invades, and while a finalized product isn't quite ready, the team is already anxious to "build devices that can act as switches in a chip."

Read

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River Glow project detects pollution with style

We've seen pigeons that monitor pollution and cement that eats pollution, but for eye-catchiness and do-goodedness, it's tough to beat Soo-in Yang and David Benjamin's River Glow project, which provides a light show as it keeps an eye on water quality. Built with a budget of $1,000, the current bathtub-bound prototype system consists of an LED connected to uncoated fiber optic strands, which gets triggered when the pH sensor detects changes in water quality. What's more, the whole thing's apparently powered by a single AA battery, which is recharged using floating strips of thin film photovoltaics. Presumably, that'd be scaled up before it gets let loose in some larger waterways (as seen above), although it's not clear when or if that'll happen. [Via Inhabitat]

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Samsung's 70-inch LED-backlit LCD television now on sale

Samsung's gettin' busy this morning in Korea with the launch of their 70-inch Full HD LCD television. Not only is it the world's largest commercially available LCD, this 1080p pup also brings a 120Hz refresh along with Samsung's local dimming LED backlighting solution for a reported 500,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio... for whatever that measurement's worth. The LN70F91BD is another ACAP packer featuring 3x HDMI 1.3 terminals and a USB 2.0 jack for purposes unknown. Available in S.Korea only at the moment with worldwide sales starting in the second half of the year. Only ₩59,000,000 for the privilege which translates to about $63k or €48k -- chump-change for culturally ambiguous superstars. [Via AVING]

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