This Is the Fanciest Farm House You Can Imagine [Architecture]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5646462/this-is-the-fanciest-farm-house-you-can-imagine

This beautiful 4564-square-foot house reminds me of Magneto's base in Secret Wars, with its second floor almost fully suspended over the air. At night it looks like the Jawas' Sandcrawler. It's actually a farm house on the Minija Valley, Lithuania.

The owner of the Utriai Residence, who is dedicated to the production of chicken eggs and pigs, and his wife, an art college student interested in furniture design, wanted a house that looked like a place "made from huge logs". Like Noah's Ark, "where the family with all their belongings and animals moved from the city."

And on top of having an awesome house, they can have fresh eggs and bacon every morning. I want to marry the farmer's daughter. [Archdaily]

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Advanced Camera System Revealed in Apple Patent Application [Apple]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5646587/advanced-camera-system-revealed-in-apple-patent-application

Apple's latest patent application details a new camera flash system that would optimize the flash based on the photo's subject. It combines a flash redirector, imaging sensors that concentrate on scene conditions, and a touch screen.

This combination of these elements could be used to provide the equivalent of a touch-to-focus for light for dark areas of a soon-to-be photograph: a touch-to-illuminate feature. The system could be incorporated into iOS devices, the iMac, MacBooks, and even a dedicated video camera. [Patently Apple]

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GE stuffs DLP projector into 14MP PJ1 point-and-shoot camera, we go hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/ge-stuffs-dlp-projector-into-14mp-pj1-point-and-shoot-camera-we/

It ain't the first point-and-shoot to emerge with a beamer within, but it's the first from GE's General Imaging branch. Boasting a 14 megapixel sensor, a vanilla enclosure and a DLP projector, the PJ1 was seen making its debut here at Photokina in Germany. The highlight of the device is obviously the 854 x 480 resolution projector that's somehow stuffed within the casing, while the most impressive part to us was just how thin it remained with such a unit inside. In other words, the projector itself was certainly lacking, and with just 15 lumens, we felt that the darker-than-dark test room (shown in the video just past the break) still wasn't dark enough. On the capture side, there's a 7x optical zoom, SD / SDHC card slot and support for 720p movies; thankfully, GE's not planning to include too hefty a premium for the projector, as we were told to expect it for "around €250 ($334)" when it lands in Europe next February.

Gallery: GE PJ1 projector camera hands-on at Photokina 2010

Continue reading GE stuffs DLP projector into 14MP PJ1 point-and-shoot camera, we go hands-on

GE stuffs DLP projector into 14MP PJ1 point-and-shoot camera, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There finally piloting Nokia's Home Control Center in Finland

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/there-finally-piloting-nokias-home-control-center-in-finland/

It sure started out as something promising. When Nokia spun off its Home Control Center technology to There Corporation last year it seemed that easy DIY home automation and power management was just around the corner. Yet here we are, almost two years after first hearing about the effort with nothing but a convoluted mess of unfriendly ZigBee and Z-Wave (to name just 2 "standards") home automation products to choose from. There is hope, small as it may be. There Corporation just announced that it's working with Mitox Oy to conduct a pilot in Finland for customers of Helsingin Energia (Helen) using a There-provided web-based solution built around the ThereGate. It allows individuals to monitor their total power consumption in real time as well as the individual devices and systems that consume energy. Better yet, There Corp employs a "rate control concept" that automatically adjusts power usage to hours when energy costs less based on simple guidelines programed by the user. Unfortunately, There Corporation's focus is on Nordic countries until 2012 before looking to dominate European home energy management in 2015. Call us crazy, but this market seems ripe for domination by a major consumer electronics company right now, not in 5 years.

Continue reading There finally piloting Nokia's Home Control Center in Finland

There finally piloting Nokia's Home Control Center in Finland originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe shows off plenoptic lenses that let you refocus an image after it's taken (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/adobe-shows-off-plenoptic-lenses-that-let-you-refocus-an-image-a/

Yes, you read that correctly. The fevered dreams of crime scene investigators up and down the country are being brought to reality by Adobe, with just a single extra lens and some crafty software knowhow. Basically, a plenoptic lens is composed of a litany of tiny "sub-lenses," which allow those precious photons you're capturing to be recorded from multiple perspectives. The result is that you get a bunch more data in your image and an "infinite" depth of field, meaning you can toggle at what distance you want your image to be focused after the act of taking it. These plenoptic lenses are inserted between your shooter's usual lens and its sensor, though commercialization is sadly said to still be a fair distance away. Never fear, you can get hold of a video demo much sooner than that -- you know where it's at.

Continue reading Adobe shows off plenoptic lenses that let you refocus an image after it's taken (video)

Adobe shows off plenoptic lenses that let you refocus an image after it's taken (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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