Audio and video trends 2018

841 Comments

1. January 21, 2018 at 10:38 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   The best open source video editors 2018: free to download, edit, use and share
   http://www.techradar.com/best/the-best-open-source-video-editor

   Video editing with community spirit

   All of the open source video editors in this roundup are available for Windows, macOS and Linux.

   Reply
2. January 22, 2018 at 6:48 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   How to make a low-cost guitar amp with Linux
   https://opensource.com/article/17/8/linux-guitar-amp?sc_cid=70160000001273HAAQ

   With just a guitar, a cable, and open source software, you’ve no need to “Gimmie Some Money” to take your home recording studio to 11.

   Reply
3. January 23, 2018 at 10:42 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   More lenses to smart phones:

   Future Nokia flagship could have five camera lenses
   http://www.techradar.com/news/next-nokia-flagship-could-have-five-camera-lenses

   A few phones now have four camera lenses, with two on the back and two on the front, but an upcoming Nokia handset could go one better with five.

   That’s according to a user posting on Chinese site Baidu, who notes that the phone will have seven camera holes – five for lenses and two for an LED flash.

   Nokia smartphone with penta-lens camera leaked, to launch later this year: Report
   http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/nokia-hmd-global-smartphone-with-penta-lens-camera-to-launch-this-year-report-5033469/

   HMD Global is working on a new flagship smartphone with five lenses on the rear, with the official launch expected to happen later this year.

   Of course, HMD Global isn’t the only company working on the photography-focused smartphone. The Chinese company Huawei is planning to launch its P-20 flagship phone, featuring five cameras in total. The device is said to come with a triple-lens camera setup on the back and two snappers above the screen on its top bezel. The launch is likely to happen at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February.

   Reply
4. January 25, 2018 at 9:31 am

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Ted Johnson / Variety:
   Bipartisan group of senators introduces the Music Modernization Act, mirroring a House bill, to streamline music licensing on services like Spotify, Pandora

   Senators Seek to Streamline Music Licensing, Boost Payments to Songwriters
   http://variety.com/2018/politics/news/music-licensing-songwriters-new-bill-1202675634/

   A group of senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to streamline the music licensing process and to increase royalty payments to rights holders.

   The Music Modernization Act updates music licensing laws to make it easier for songwriters to get paid when their music is streamed or purchased online. Songwriters have been seeking legislative changes for years, pointing out that they have not been receiving fair market value for their works on digital platforms like Spotify and Pandora.

   “Our music licensing laws are convoluted, out-of-date, and don’t reward songwriters fairly for their work,” said Hatch, who is a songwriter himself. “They’ve also failed to keep up with recent, rapid changes in how Americans purchase and listen to music.”

   Reply
5. January 25, 2018 at 1:44 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Make Your Audio System Sound Better with Smart Amp Technology
   http://www.electronicdesign.com/analog/make-your-audio-system-sound-better-smart-amp-technology?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20171222_ED-003_894&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=14670&utm_medium=email&elq2=74538ec206e740a2a04536e44fa9f54d

   Sponsored by: Texas Instruments. As dimensions continue to shrink, audio engineers have turned to advanced digital modeling and smart amplifiers to get more sound from smaller speakers, while still maintaining high audio quality.

   Where Speakers Go to Die

   Thermal failure occurs when the amplifier supplies more power to the speaker than it can handle, causing the voice coil to get too hot. Up to 95% of the energy input to the loudspeaker is turned into heat.

   Mechanical failure can occur when the drive signal demands excessive movement from the speaker coil. At one end, the coil may strike the speaker assembly backplate and cause an audible clicking sound. At the other end, the coil may pop completely out of its housing and fail to return correctly, resulting in a permanent misalignment.

   Speaker Protection and Smart Amplifier Technology

   Protecting the speaker requires both controlling the voice-coil temperature and keeping the cone excursion within safe limits.

   Reply
6. January 25, 2018 at 2:06 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Facebook invented a new time unit called the ‘flick’ and it’s truly amazing
   https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/22/facebook-invented-a-new-time-unit-called-the-flick-and-its-truly-amazing/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook

   Facebook invented a new time unit called the ‘flick’ and it’s truly amazing
   Posted Jan 22, 2018 by Devin Coldewey

   I was all set to dislike the “flick,” a time unit just recently invented by Facebook (technically the Oculus team), because I thought it was going to be something worthless like “the average time someone looks at a post.” In fact it’s a very clever way of dividing time that theoretically could make video and audio production much more harmonious.

   So what is a flick? A flick is one seven hundred and five million six hundred thousandth of a second — 1/705,600,000 if you prefer the digits, or 1.417233560090703e-9 if you prefer decimals.

   And why is that useful?

   As a hint, here’s a list of numbers into which 1/705,600,000 divides evenly: 1/8, 1/16, 1/22.05, 1/24, 1/25, 1/30, 1/32, 1/44.1, 1/48, 1/50, 1/60, 1/90, 1/100, 1/120. Notice a pattern?

   Even if you don’t work in media production, some of those numbers probably look familiar. That’s because they’re all framerates or frequencies used in encoding or showing things like films and music. 24 frames per second, 120 hertz TVs, 44.1 KHz sample rate audio.

   Many of these fractions resolve into inconvenient decimal series, necessitating shorthand or estimations.

   You can download, fork, or otherwise investigate the flicks format and code over at GitHub.
   https://github.com/OculusVR/Flicks

   Reply
7. January 26, 2018 at 12:01 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   James Vincent / The Verge:
   Twitter says it’s now using machine learning to identify the most salient part of an image and crop picture previews accordingly

   Twitter is using machine learning to crop photos to the most interesting part
   The machine knows what you want to look at
   https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/25/16931632/twitter-machine-learning-auto-image-cropping

   The lure of machine learning isn’t always about big new features; often, what it does best are small tweaks that subtly improve user experience. So it is with Twitter’s use of neural networks to automatically crop picture previews to their most interesting part.

   Speedy Neural Networks for Smart Auto-Cropping of Images
   https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/infrastructure/2018/Smart-Auto-Cropping-of-Images.html

   The ability to share photos directly on Twitter has existed since 2011 and is now an integral part of the Twitter experience. Today, millions of images are uploaded to Twitter every day. However, they can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, which presents a challenge for rendering a consistent UI experience. The photos in your timeline are cropped to improve consistency and to allow you to see more Tweets at a glance. How do we decide what to crop, that is, which part of the image do we show you?

   Reply
8. January 26, 2018 at 12:13 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Samantha Cole / Motherboard:
   The rise of AI-assisted tools like FakeApp have made it easy for users with no technical background to create convincing face-swap porn videos

   We Are Truly Fucked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now
   A user-friendly application has resulted in an explosion of convincing face-swap porn.
   https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjye8a/reddit-fake-porn-app-daisy-ridley

   In December, Motherboard discovered a redditor named ‘deepfakes’ quietly enjoying his hobby: Face-swapping celebrity faces onto porn performers’ bodies. He made several convincing porn videos of celebrities—including Gal Gadot, Maisie Williams, and Taylor Swift—using a machine learning algorithm, his home computer, publicly available videos, and some spare time.

   Since we first wrote about deepfakes, the practice of producing AI-assisted fake porn has exploded. More people are creating fake celebrity porn using machine learning, and the results have become increasingly convincing.

   These are developments we and the experts we spoke to warned about in our original article. They have arrived with terrifying speed.

   Deepfakeapp told me in a Reddit direct message that his goal with creating FakeApp was to make deepfakes’ technology available to people without a technical background or programming experience.

   “I think the current version of the app is a good start, but I hope to streamline it even more in the coming days and weeks,” he said. “Eventually, I want to improve it to the point where prospective users can simply select a video on their computer, download a neural network correlated to a certain face from a publicly available library, and swap the video with a different face with the press of one button.”

   In early January, shortly after Motherboard’s first deepfakes story broke, I called Peter Eckersley, chief computer scientist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to talk about the implications of this technology on society at large: “I think we’re on the cusp of this technology being really easy and widespread,” he told me, adding that deepfakes were pretty difficult to make at the time. “You can make fake videos with neural networks today, but people will be able to tell that you’ve done that if you look closely, and some of the techniques involved remain pretty advanced. That’s not going to stay true for more than a year or two.”

   In fact, that barely stayed true for two months.

   Fakes posted in the subreddit have already been pitched as real on other websites

   Most of the posts in r/deepfakes so far are porn, but some users are also creating videos that show the far reaching implication of a technology that allows anyone with sufficient raw footage to work with to convincingly place any face in any video.

   According to deepfakeapp, anyone who can download and run FakeApp can create one of these videos with only one or two high-quality videos of the faces they want to fake. The subreddit’s wiki states that FakeApp is “a community-developed desktop app to run the deepfakes algorithm without installing Python, Tensorflow, etc.,” and that all one needs to run it is a “good GPU [graphics processing unit, the kind that high-end 3D video games require] with CUDA support [NVIDIA’s parallel computing platform and programming model].” If users don’t have the proper GPU, they can also rent cloud GPUs through services like Google Cloud Platform. Running the entire process, from data extraction to frame-by-frame conversion of one face onto another, would take about eight to 12 hours if done correctly. Other people have reported spending much longer, sometimes with disastrous results.

   “Top is original footage from Rogue One with a strange CGI Carrie Fisher. Movie budget: $200m,” derpfake wrote of his creation. “Bottom is a 20 minute fake that could have been done in essentially the same way with a visually similar actress. My budget: $0 and some Fleetwood Mac tunes.”

   An incredibly easy-to-use application for DIY fake videos—of sex and revenge porn, but also political speeches and whatever else you want—that moves and improves at this pace could have society-changing impacts in the ways we consume media. The combination of powerful, open-source neural network research, our rapidly eroding ability to discern truth from fake news, and the way we spread news through social media has set us up for serious consequences.

   “Socially and culturally, this is exploitative but quite survivable,”

   FakeApp: Finally, a Program that Will Let You Seamlessly Put Donald Trump in Porn!
   http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/fakeapp-finally-a-program-that-will-let

   Reply
9. January 26, 2018 at 12:14 pm

   Tomi Engdahl says:

   Darpa Wants to Build an Image Search Engine out of DNA
   https://www.wired.com/story/darpa-wants-to-build-an-image-search-engine-out-of-dna

   Most people use Google’s search-by-image feature to either look for copyright infringement, or for shopping. See some shoes you like on a frenemy’s Instagram? Search will pull up all the matching images on the web, including from sites that will sell you the same pair. In order to do that, Google’s computer vision algorithms had to be trained to extract identifying features like colors, textures, and shapes from a vast catalogue of images. Luis Ceze, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, wants to encode that same process directly in DNA, making the molecules themselves carry out that computer vision work. And he wants to do it using your photos.

   Reply
10. January 26, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-chrome-latest-update-autoplay-videos-mute-website-version-new-browser-a8178306.html

    The web browser is also confronting the issue of cleverly disguised links and popups

    Available on Windows, Mac and Linux, Chrome 64 lets you permanently mute websites that autoplay videos.

    Reply
11. January 26, 2018 at 12:27 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Github mirror of FakeApp code
    from deekfakes’ faceswap: https://www.reddit.com/user/deepfakes/
    https://github.com/joshua-wu/deepfakes_faceswap

    Reply
12. January 26, 2018 at 12:42 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    China Is Quickly Switching From Pirating To Streaming
    https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/01/25/2345251/china-is-quickly-switching-from-pirating-to-streaming

    Not so long ago, China was an oasis for pirated music and videos. CDs and DVDs were easily copied and sold for cheap at roadside markets. If you had a computer and an internet connection, top selling albums and Hollywood movies were widely available for free online. That’s changing fast as new technologies such as the convenient WeChat payment and a long-running crackdown on pirated content mean members of the country’s growing, smartphone-wielding middle class are increasingly willing to pay to stream videos and music online.

    “When you have to spend two-to-three hours digging up pirated content, users are willing to pay a [small] amount of money to get non-pirated content,”

    China’s big streaming shift: Paying instead of pirating
    http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/24/technology/china-streaming-music-video/index.html

    Not so long ago, China was an oasis for pirated music and videos. CDs and DVDs were easily copied and sold for cheap at roadside markets. If you had a computer and an internet connection, top selling albums and Hollywood movies were widely available for free online.

    That’s changing. And as is the case with many tech trends in China, it’s changing fast.

    New technologies and a long-running crackdown on pirated content mean members of the country’s growing, smartphone-wielding middle class are increasingly willing to pay to stream videos and music online.

    Workers in China earn far less on average than their U.S. counterparts. But for the better paid inhabitants of Chinese cities, streaming content is pretty affordable.

    Across major Chinese video platforms, the monthly fee is about 20 yuan ($3); streaming music is even cheaper, ranging from 8 to 15 yuan ($1-$2) per month. Compare that with a basic monthly Netflix (NFLX) subscription in the U.S. at $8, or a Spotify one at $10.

    ‘It became really easy to pay’

    The rapid spread of digital payment platforms like Tencent’s WeChat Pay and Alibaba-affiliated Alipay has also played a role, according to Xue Yu, an analyst with research firm IDC.

    China’s big tech companies dominate

    Tencent has a virtual monopoly on the streaming of mainstream western music in China. It struck a deal with Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group for the exclusive rights to stream their music in China. Under the deals, Tencent also gets to decide which songs rivals get to stream.

    Video streaming has had more success — both Tencent Video and iQiyi report about 10% of their monthly active users pony up for subscriptions (about 40 million and 30 million users respectively).

    Premium content is the driving force for getting people to convert to subscriptions — if you can only watch your favorite TV show with a VIP streaming account, for example, you are more likely to subscribe to such a service.

    As a result, Chinese video platforms “have to compete quite fiercely” for content, IDC’s Xue said.

    Reply
13. January 26, 2018 at 1:13 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Video compression formats: A primer
    http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-25/issue-12/features/technology/video-compression-formats-a-primer.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-01-25&pwhid=e8db06ed14609698465f1047e5984b63cb4378bd1778b17304d68673fe5cbd2798aa8300d050a73d96d04d9ea94e73adc417b4d6e8392599eabc952675516bc0&eid=293591077&bid=1984307

    At Axis Communications we use three video compression standards: Motion JPEG, MPEG-4 Part 2 (often referred to simply as MPEG-4), and H.264. H.264 is the latest and most-efficient video compression standard. Here are descriptions of each of those formats.

    Motion JPEG—Motion JPEG or M-JPEG is a digital video sequence that is made up of a series of individual JPEG images. (JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group.) When 16 image frames or more are shown per second, the viewer perceives motion video. Full motion video is perceived at 30 (NTSC) or 25 (PAL) frames per second.

    One of the advantages of Motion JPEG is that each image in a video sequence can have the same guaranteed quality that is determined by the compression level chosen for the network camera or video encoder. The higher the compression level, the lower the file size and image quality.

    Because there is no dependency between the frames in Motion JPEG, a Motion JPEG video is robust, meaning that if one frame is dropped during transmission, the rest of the video will not be affected.

    Motion JPEG is an unlicensed standard.

    MPEG-4—When MPEG-4 is mentioned in video surveillance applications, it is usually referring to MPEG-4 Part 2, also known as MPEG-4 Visual.Like all MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standards, it is a licensed standard, so users must pay a license fee per monitoring station.

    H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC—H.264, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC for Advanced Video Coding, is the latest MPEG standard for video encoding. H.264 is expected to become the video standard of choice in the coming years. This is because an H.264 encoder can, without compromising image quality, reduce the size of a digital video file by more than 80 percent compared with the Motion JPEG format and as much as 50 percent more than with the MPEG-4 standard.

    H.264 is also expected to accelerate the adoption of megapixel cameras because the highly efficient compression technology can reduce the large file sizes and bit rates generated without compromising image quality.

    Axis’s H.264 encoders use the baseline profile, which means that only I- and P-frames are used. This profile is ideal for network cameras and video encoders because low latency is achieved because B-frames are not used. Low latency is essential in video surveillance applications where live monitoring takes place, especially when PTZ cameras or PTZ dome cameras are used.

    Our H.264 encoder generated up to 50 percent fewer bits per second for a sample video sequence than an MPEG-4 encoder with motion compensation. The H.264 encoder was at least three times more efficient than an MPEG-4 encoder with no motion compensation, and at least six times more efficient than with Motion JPEG.

    Reply
14. January 26, 2018 at 7:12 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    OpenToonz: Making high-end animation software accessible
    https://opensource.com/article/17/2/opentoonz-2d-animation-software?sc_cid=70160000001273HAAQ

    Reply
15. January 26, 2018 at 8:10 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Coolest Electronic Toys You’ll See At NAMM
    https://hackaday.com/2018/01/26/the-coolest-electronic-toys-youll-see-at-namm/

    Winter NAMM is the world’s largest trade show for musical instrument makers. It is a gear head’s paradise, filled to the brim with guitars, synths, amps, MIDI controllers, an impossibly loud section filled with drums, ukuleles, and all sorts of electronic noisemakers that generate bleeps and bloops. Think of it as CES, only with products people want to buy. We’re reporting no one has yet stuffed Alexa into a guitar pedal, by the way.

    As with all trade shows, the newest gear is out, and it’s full of tech that will make your head spin. NAMM is the expression of an entire industry, and with that comes technical innovation

    Low Power Tubes

    A few years back, Korg announced the NuTube, most likely the first new design of a vacuum tube in several decades. The NuTube 6P1 is a dual triode meant for preamp applications and can be seen as a very, very low power 12AX7. The technology behind the NuTube is the same as vacuum fluorescent displays

    NuTube has found its way into the new Vox Continental organ, but now we’re seeing novel applications of this fairly new, somewhat ancient technology. It’s in a guitar pedal.

    The new tube-based Tube Screamer still uses an op-amp, but replaces the silicon clipping diodes with the NuTube.

    The ProCo RAT is an op-amp (an LM308 for the tone snobs) with some clipping diodes in the feedback loop. If you’re noticing a pattern here, you too can design guitar effects.

    Introducing the RAT Tail. It’s a guitar cable with a little bit of microcircuitry built into one plug. Effectively, you’re looking at a right-angle 1/4″ jack with a three-position rotary switch on it. Position one is bypass, position two is the classic RAT sound with unity gain, and position three adds +3dB of boost. It’s powered by two coin cells,

    Euroracks are everywhere and it’s awesome

    Modular synths have been around since the beginning of synthesis, but only recently has the popular Eurorack format caught on. The DIY synth community has glommed onto this format designed to fit in a 3U rack (kinda, they’re 3 x 1.75″ tall, at least). You can find Eurorack synth modules on Tindie, elsewhere on the web, and even guitar pedal manufacturers are cashing in on this fantastic opportunity.

    With all those pretty Eurorack modules, you have to wonder where these companies get their front panels manufactured. It appears there are very few companies doing it. Metalphoto of Cincinnati was at NAMM, and if you want pieces of aluminum drilled and labeled, this would be a place to check out. They’re using a photo process to anodize aluminum, and they can do multiple processes.

    Loknob is a knob for a standard potentiometer that prevents you from bumping the knob and changing your settings.

    The musical instrument industry has seen a continuing trend of resurrected brands over the last two decades.

    This year, one of the great vintage amplifier manufactures demoed their wares at NAMM. Magnatone was one of the first amplifier companies

    The trademarks were abandoned until Ted Kornblum, marketing professional and MBA,
    registered the Magnatone trademarks and recruited a team to rebuild the old Magnatone circuits with all the modern niceties

    The result is an amp that is going on tour with Neil Young, ZZ Top, and Jeff Beck.
    There is no direct line of lineage between the amps sold at Sears in 1958 and the Magnatone amps sold in 2016.
    Why then is Magnatone a success story? Because someone registered a trademark.

    Reply
16. January 27, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    James Vincent / The Verge:
    AI advances are now making automated analysis of live surveillance video possible, presaging useful applications while raising serious questions about privacy

    Artificial intelligence is going to supercharge surveillance
    What happens when digital eyes get the brains to match?
    https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/23/16907238/artificial-intelligence-surveillance-cameras-security

    We usually think of surveillance cameras as digital eyes, watching over us or watching out for us, depending on your view. But really, they’re more like portholes: useful only when someone is looking through them. Sometimes that means a human watching live footage, usually from multiple video feeds. Most surveillance cameras are passive, however. They’re there as a deterrence, or to provide evidence if something goes wrong. Your car got stolen? Check the CCTV.

    But this is changing — and fast. Artificial intelligence is giving surveillance cameras digital brains to match their eyes, letting them analyze live video with no humans necessary. This could be good news for public safety, helping police and first responders more easily spot crimes and accidents and have a range of scientific and industrial applications. But it also raises serious questions about the future of privacy and poses novel risks to social justice.

    What happens when governments can track huge numbers of people using CCTV? When police can digitally tail you around a city just by uploading your mugshot into a database? Or when a biased algorithm is running on the cameras in your local mall, pinging the cops because it doesn’t like the look of a particular group of teens?

    AI surveillance starts with searchable video

    The biggest obstacle is pretty common: low-resolution video

    Some AI surveillance tasks are already solved; others need work

    “We want people to not just be free, but to feel free.”

    When AI surveillance becomes common, who will regulate the algorithms?

    Reply
17. January 27, 2018 at 4:20 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Robert Draper / National Geographic:
    A deep look at the evolution of visual surveillance technology, where it is headed, and what its continuing rise will mean for security, transparency, privacy

    They Are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet
    https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/02/surveillance-watching-you/

    Technology and our increasing demand for security have put us all under surveillance. Is privacy becoming just a memory?

    Reply
18. January 27, 2018 at 4:26 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
    CIRP: Amazon has 69% of smart speaker market in US with 31M units, Google has 31% with 14M; Google gained share this holiday season with 40% of units sold — According to new survey-based data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), Google Home has gained some ground on Amazon’s Alexa device universe.

    Analyst firm: Google Home gains ground on Amazon Echo, now 44M total devices sold
    A new survey from CIRP argues that Google Home captured about 40 percent of holiday sales.
    https://searchengineland.com/analyst-firm-google-home-gains-ground-amazon-echo-44-million-total-units-sold-290544

    Reply
19. January 27, 2018 at 9:27 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    What? Professional audio connectors with decorations installed by manufacturer:

    crystalCON
    http://www.neutrik.com/en/xlr/xlr-cable-connectors/crystalcon/
    Fancy, noble, valuable, attractive – the crystalCON connectors made with Swarovski crystals are eye catchers.

    Reply
20. January 27, 2018 at 9:33 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Review: Neutrik crystalCON, Decorative Mic Cable Connectors
    http://www.voicecouncil.com/review-neutrik-crystalcon-decorative-mic-cable-connectors/

    At A Glance: Neutrik’s crystalCON range consist of XLR (mic) connectors that are decorated with Swarovski crystals to add some sparkle to your mic cable.

    High Notes: The are available in both male (NC3MXX-B-CRYSTAL) and female (NC3FXX-B-CRYSTAL) XLR connection formats – so you could just solder one to the end of your mic cable that is on display if you wanted to and not have to buy both connectors. The CRYSTALLIZEDTM, Swarovski Elements stand out nicely against the Black chromium chassis and the color ring can be changed without unsoldering insert.

    Off Pitch: Adding crystals to your mic cable won’t be to everyone’s tastes

    VoiceCouncil Reviewer Says: Love them or hate them, Neutrik’s crystalCON connectors offer something a bit different from your usual mic cable connectors.

    Reply
21. January 27, 2018 at 9:45 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ryne Hager / Android Police:
    Google’s AI-powered Clips camera is now available in the US Google Store for $249, with first deliveries expected in March

    [Update: All gone] Google Clips now available in the Google Store, but deliveries aren’t expected until March
    http://www.androidpolice.com/2018/01/26/google-clips-now-available-google-store-deliveries-arent-expected-march/

    Reply
22. January 27, 2018 at 9:47 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    3D, volume-filled imagery created with hovering dots
    An optical traces shapes with the particle, while lasers light it up.
    https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/3d-volume-filled-imagery-created-with-hovering-dots/

    All sorts of 3D-imaging technologies tend to get lumped under the label “hologram.” But there’s actually a variety of distinct technologies that can create the appearance of depth. Now, we can add another to the list: the photophoretic-trap volumetric display. The device uses one set of optical hardware to control the motion of a tiny sphere and a second set to illuminate the sphere as it travels. Provided the sphere can be kept moving fast enough, the result is a true-color image that has real depth since it’s built from light reflected from different locations.

    The downside is that a single sphere can’t cover all that much ground in the amount of time our brain needs to construct an image. As a result, photophoretic-trap volumetric display is currently limited to either small images or showing only part of an image at a time.

    Reply
23. January 29, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Standards update: GigE Vision standard status and future: What you need to know
    http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-22/issue-9/departments/technology-trends/standards-update-gige-vision-standard-status-and-future-what-you-need-to-know.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-01-29&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1986292

    Since May 2006, when the GigE Vision standard was established, there have been three revisions, which took place in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (version 2.0).

    While the last revision took place six years ago, those involved with the GigE Vision standard have remained busy.

    First, it was noted, that the committee is finalizing the content of 3D data support, which is being integrated into the text of the standard, including the necessary changes to the GenICam Pixel Format Naming Convention.

    Lastly, it was announced that GigE Vision now offers a special licensing program for Ethernet products that don’t implement the full standard, but are configured to easily integrate vision system components and could benefit from GigE Vision branding.

    The next iteration of the GigE Vision standard will be version 2.1, which is expected this year.

    This, according to the AIA article, will give integrators the ability to remove an I/O cable and use only the Ethernet cable to provide data, power, and trigger to a GigE Vision camera. Additional items to look out for, suggested Carey, include new products using NBASE-T and 10GigE.

    “NBASE-T supports 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps on the same twisted pair cable used by GigE. Some companies, including Teledyne e2v and Pleora Technologies, have announced products. 10GigE is also showing its nose, with products from FLIR (Formerly Point Grey) and Emergent Vision Technologies among others.”

    Camera Interfaces: GigE Vision cameras and simulation
    http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-22/issue-9/departments/technology-trends/camera-interfaces-gige-vision-cameras-and-simulation.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-01-29&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1986292

    Throughout 2017, numerous GigE Vision products have been released, including industrial cameras, smart cameras, and vision sensors from the following companies that license GigE Vision from the AIA

    IDS Imaging Development Systems’ uEye FA camera

    Developers and end users can test and debug their GigE Vision client applications and receivers, utilizing the GigESim GigE Vision simulator from A&B Software (New London, CT, USA; http://www.ab-soft.com) which turns a computer into a set of virtual GigE Vision cameras.

    According to Boris Nalibotski, president of A&B Software, users can select between GEV 1.2 and GEV 2.1 versions of the standard, inject artificial error conditions to the network, assign a pre-recorded image or video file as video source and control virtual camera features from their client application.

    Reply
24. January 29, 2018 at 12:24 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Industrial camera interfaces, technologies and applications
    http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-22/issue-11/departments/market-survey/industrial-camera-interfaces-technologies-and-applications.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-01-29&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1986292

    Manufacturers and users review industrial camera market status and future trends.

    While automation in production and agriculture comprised 72% of sales, quality assurance is the top camera application for both manufacturers (72%) and users (49%), followed by measurement tasks (62% and 48%, for manufacturers and users, respectively). Also, robotics and scientific applications still represent an important part in the total imaging sales and purchase decisions. Manufacturers reported 115% growth in the transportation sector compared to 2016, driven by autonomous vehicles and automated driver assistance system applications. However, medical technology remained flat.

    As machine vision expands into more fields, manufacturers capitalize on potential new applications with 28% of respondents stating that their cameras are used for drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Other application areas seeing increases include those based on artificial intelligence, 3D scanning, gesture control and virtual reality. While users recognize this potential, they are still firmly focused on traditional machine vision applications.

    After a gradual decline in prices prior to and including 2015, the cost of mid- and high-price cameras is noticeably more stable in 2017. Only 19% of users limited their budget to $350 for a camera, compared to 45% in 2016. Users paying between $350 and $1,000 (38%), or more than $1000 (42%) increased as compared to last year (+7 and +19 percentage points, respectively). The high price segment is clearly growing and user trends are largely confirmed by manufacturers, especially in terms of a decrease in demand for cameras priced below $150 and the steep increase for those over $1,000.

    CMOS vs. CCD

    Accelerated by Sony’s discontinuation of CCD imagers, the previously announced decline of CCD sensor usage is more evident with 73% of manufacturers and users employing CMOS technology, while the remaining 27% still use CCD.

    However, the sensor market is showing signs of stabilization. Sony remains the clear market leader with 49% of users, and lost only 4 percentage points compared with 2016. ON Semiconductor’s share changed little at 30%, and the projected 175% growth over last year in customized sensors, increasing their market share to 11%, has been achieved. At 9%, CMOSIS still plays a significant role for users in a clearly segmented sensor market.

    Reply
25. January 29, 2018 at 12:25 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    High-speed PCI Express cameras from XIMEA achieves frame rates of up to 3500 fps
    http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2018/01/high-speed-pci-express-cameras-from-ximea-achieves-frame-rates-of-up-to-3500-fps.html

    Expanding on its line of xiB-64 high-speed cameras with PCI Express (PCI) interface, XIMEA has announced the launch of the CB013 and CB019 cameras. The CB013 camera features the 1.1 MPixel LUX13HS global shutter CMOS image sensor, which reaches a speed of 3500 fps at full resolution. The CB019 camera features the 2 MPixel LUX19HS global shutter CMOS image sensor, which reaches a speed of 2500 fps at full resolution. Additionally, the cameras feature trigger inputs and outputs, the XIMEA SDK/API, which enables users to choose from Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and can offer a full image processing pipeline on an NVIDIA GPU in real-time.

    Reply
26. January 29, 2018 at 2:00 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Making Cassette Tapes Cool Again
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbNa-KLAgy8

    The growing popularity of cassettes in the music industry is creating a serious tape shortage. One die-hard supplier, National Audio Co. in Springfield, Mo., sees an opportunity.

    The Last Audio Cassette Factory
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMTpvr9HXeI

    Springfield, MO-based National Audio Company opened in 1969 and when other major manufacturers abandoned tape manufacturing for CD production in the late 1990s, the company held on tight. Now, the cassette maker is pumping out more cassettes than ever before.

    Reply
27. January 29, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    13 Reasons Why Cassettes Are Cool Again in 2018
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du5mi47z7hU

    Why would a cassette lie? Thirteen reasons why they’re cool again in 2018, narrated using the same model of tape recorder as seen in the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why”.

    Reply
28. January 29, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Back when cameras used… Floppy Disks? Sony Mavica
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J0Aw2Z-8-k

    Reply
29. February 1, 2018 at 5:59 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    A crisis, the causes and a solution
    http://blog.chiariglione.org/a-crisis-the-causes-and-a-solution/

    Why this post?

    Because there are rumours spreading about a presumed “MPEG-Video collapse” and Brownian motion-like initiatives trying to remedy – in some cases by the very people who have contributed to creating the “crisis”.

    Who is the author of this post?

    Leonardo Chiariglione, the founder and chairman of MPEG

    Why is MPEG important?

    In its 30 years of operation MPEG has created digital media standards that have enabled the birth and continue promoting the growth of digital media products, services and applications. Here are a few, out of close to 180 standards: MP3 for digital music (1992), MPEG-2 for digital television (1994), MPEG-4 Visual for video on internet (1998), MP4 file format for mobile handsets (2001), AVC for reduced bitrate video (2003), DASH for internet streaming (2013), MMT for IP broadcasting (2013) and more.

    How could MPEG achieve this?

    Thanks to its “business model” that can be simply described as: produce standards having the best performance as a goal, irrespective of the IPR involved.

    Patent holders who allow use of their patents get hefty royalties with which they can develop new technologies

    Why is there a “crisis”?

    Good stories have an end, so the MPEG business model could not last forever. Over the years proprietary and “royalty free” products have emerged but have not been able to dent the success of MPEG standards. More importantly IP holders – often companies not interested in exploiting MPEG standards, so called Non Practicing Entities (NPE) – have become more and more aggressive in extracting value from their IP.

    I saw the danger coming and designed a strategy for it.

    The Internet Video Coding (IVC) standard was a successful implementation of the idea – kind of.

    IVC is practically dead.

    In 2013 MPEG approved the HEVC

    there are 3 patent pools, one of which has not published their licence and a significant number of patent holders that have not joined any pool

    Alliance for Open Media (AOM) has occupied the void created by MPEG’s outdated video compression standard (AVC), absence of competitive Options 1 standards (IVC) and unusable modern standard (HEVC). AOM’s AV1 codec, due to be released soon, is claimed to perform better than HEVC and will be offered royalty free.

    At long last everybody realises that the old MPEG business model is now broke

    The situation can be described as tragic. This does not mean that there is nothing left to do. I personally doubt that something will be done

    it is easy to anticipate that the next threat is just around the corner

    MPEG’s governance is weak

    If MPEG ends now it will be a pity, but if this is the decision of the stakeholders – the industry in MPEG – so be it.

    AOM will certainly give much needed stability to the video codec market but this will come at the cost of reduced if not entirely halted technical progress.

    There will simply be no incentive for companies to develop new video compression technologies

    Reply
30. February 1, 2018 at 6:18 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Standards for the present and the future
    http://blog.chiariglione.org/standards-for-the-present-and-the-future/

    Standards used to have a direct impact on industry, but only rarely on end users, at most only on a small portion of them.

    One of the most egregious cases is the ISO/IEC standard called High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). Work on this standard started in January 2010 and ended with the first release exactly 3 years later. As of July 2017 there are 3 patent pools (one representing 35 patent holders) and a number of companies (not represented by any patent pool) all claiming to have Intellectual Property (IP) on the standard.

    It is no surprise that most people do not even know about HEVC because it is seldom – if ever – used in audio-visual services, and this 4 and a half years after industries could implement the standard – 18 months longer than it took to develop the standard itself. And some people say that standardisation takes too long!

    This situation creates three clear losers:

    Companies that have contributed their technologies to the standard do not get the benefits of their investment;
    Companies that would be ready to use – in products, services and applications – HEVC because it performs better (by 60%) than Advanced Video Coding (AVC) currently in use are practically prevented from using it;
    End users are deprived of their right to get better or new services, or simply services where it was not possible to have them before.

    The problem of these well-intentioned rules is that they were developed at a time when patents relevant to a standard were typically held by one company. Even with tens of MPEG-2 and AVC patent holders, things were still under control

    However, in HEVC we are dealing with close to 100 patent holders grouped in 3 patent pools and a significant number of patents holders outside

    the committee developing a standard has no means to remove the technology

    there is no process to develop licensing terms

    the committee developing the standard has no means to remove the infringing technology.

    These problems have been identified and brought to an appropriate level in ISO/IEC. Is anything going to happen? Don’t count on it.

    Reply
31. February 1, 2018 at 11:39 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Is it legal to swap someone’s face into porn without consent?
    Yes, no, maybe
    https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/30/16945494/deepfakes-porn-face-swap-legal

    For victims of revenge porn and other explicit material shared without consent, legal remedies have arrived only within the last decade. But thanks to AI-assisted technology, anyone with an online presence could now end up starring in pornography against their will — and there’s little that the law can do about it.

    For the past several weeks, a subreddit called “deepfakes” has been saturated with doctored images that depict famous figures, mostly women, engaging in sexual acts, where their faces are believably mapped onto pornographic pictures, GIFs, or videos

    In December 2017, Motherboard broke the news that a Redditor by the name of “deepfakes” had figured out how to create this kind of face-swapped fake porn, and the AI-assisted tech advanced quickly. By January, not only was there a subreddit dedicated to “deepfakes,” but there was an app designed to make creating them as easy as possible.

    Although there are benign applications of this technology — it’s harmless to swap in actor Nicolas Cage for a bunch of goofy cameos — it’s a lot less cute in the hands of someone with more malicious goals, like placing unwilling participants in explicit sex videos. Photoshopped pornography is already a common harassment tool deployed against women on the internet; a video makes the violation far more active, and harder to identify as forged.

    As deepfakes become more refined and easier to create, they also highlight the inadequacy of the law to protect would-be victims of this new technology. What, if anything, can you do if you’re inserted into pornographic images or videos against your will? Is it against the law to create, share, and spread falsified pornography with someone else’s face?

    The answer is complicated.

    “It’s almost impossible to erase a video once it’s been published to the internet,” Goldman says. “… If you’re looking for the magic wand that can erase that video permanently, it probably doesn’t exist.”

    A defamation claim could potentially be effective because the person depicted in the video isn’t actually in it, Goldman explains. It’s a false statement of fact about the victim’s presence

    However, a defamation claim is hard to win.

    “You can’t sue someone for exposing the intimate details of your life when it’s not your life they’re exposing.”

    Getting the content removed could be a possible First Amendment violation. “All content is presumptively protected by the First Amendment,” Goldman says. The exceptions to free speech are narrowly defined

    It could also be possible to get a video removed with a copyright claim.

    In other words, while a website has no obligation to remove a video for defamation, it would need to pull a video that infringes on copyright — or face liability equal to the person who posted the video. However, this isn’t much help to the specific victim featured in the video, as it’s likely they don’t own that copyright.

    But again, each video depicts at minimum two people: the person whose body is truthfully being represented, and the person whose face has falsely been added.

    “[Celebrities are] going to have possibly fewer privacy rights,”

    Deepfakes could also expand to problematic areas beyond pornography and use the technology to create “fake news” involving politicians and other public figures — or just about anyone. Although legislators could attempt to craft new laws that address face-swapped porn in the context of the First Amendment, Goldman thinks the solution will need to go beyond just a legal one. “I think we have to prepare for a world where we are routinely exposed to a mix of truthful and fake photos and videos,” he says.

    “The proliferation of tools to make fake photos and fake videos that are indistinguishable from real photos and videos is going to test that basic, human capacity.”

    Reply
32. February 2, 2018 at 8:11 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Scott Roxborough / Hollywood Reporter:
    126 prominent European screenwriters and directors sign open letter urging EU lawmakers to adopt copyright law aimed at better compensating creatives online

    European Directors and Screenwriters Back New Copyright Legislation
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/european-directors-screenwriters-back-new-copyright-legislation-1080472

    A total of 126 prominent European screenwriters and directors, together with their industry organizations, published an open letter Wednesday, calling on Europe’s lawmakers to adopt a proposed change in copyright law aimed at better compensating creatives for online use of their work.

    Reply
33. February 2, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    MPEG video dies out

    MPEG technology has dominated coding for the media for 30 years, but now open and licensed technologies are taking over the market. MPEG founder Leonardo Chiariglione says that MPEG and HVEC standards are at a high risk, and this hampers the development of codecs.

    MPEG (the Moving Picture Experts Group) is an ISO working group that has developed nearly 180 standards. We use many: MP3, MPEG4 and new powerful video codec HVEC. According to Mr Chiarigione, the problem of the working group is governance. If problems arise, bringing them to judgment is too slow and stiff.

    HEVC video coding configuration. Technology is dominated by three large patent groups, as well as a number of companies that are not part of any pool. The confused situation has allowed companies to favor open codecs.

    AOM Group (Alliance for Open Media)
    AOM’s rising video codec is AV1. According to the MPEG founder, HEVC is clearly better in efficiency, meaning that one quality image can be transmitted at a clearly lower bit rate.

    MPEG’s confusing business model, which has to pay royalties to technology IP rights holders, has come to its end.

    The unavoidable consequence is that the MPEG standards disappear sooner or later from the market.

    Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7494&via=n&datum=2018-02-02_15:13:36&mottagare=31202

    Reply
34. February 2, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Saelig Intros Teledyne LeCroy’s quantumdata 280 HDTV A/V Test Set
    https://www.eeweb.com/profile/eeweb/news/saelig-intros-teledyne-lecroys-quantumdata-280-hdtv-a-v-test-set

    Saelig Company, Inc. has announced the availability of the Teledyne LeCroy quantumdata 280 HDMI/HDBaseT Video Generator (Tx) and Analyzer (Rx) – a small compact, battery powered test set ideally suited for professional A/V integrators and home theatre installers. This convenient test set assists with fundamental verification and diagnostic tests on HDMI/HDBaseT cables, video distribution networks, and individual A/V components. The HDMI input and output ports support testing at data rates of up to 18Gbps and pixel rates of up to 600MHz. The HDBaseT input and output ports support testing at pixel rates up to 300MHz.

    The Teledyne LeCroy 280 Test Set can quickly verify hot plug, +5V, EDID, HDCP, and video transmissions through a video distribution network, check interoperability between video sources, displays and distribution equipment, and diagnose video and protocol failures in cables, video distribution devices and components with a simple Pass/Fail indication on its LCD display.

    Reply
35. February 5, 2018 at 2:26 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    JAN 30, 2018 @ 09:36 PM1,188
    Novel Video Camera Can Monitor Your Heart Rate–Using Only Your Face
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2018/01/30/novel-video-camera-can-monitor-your-heart-rate-using-only-your-face/#62a6cac94b9d

    “The operation of our system is similar to a pulse oximeter, but instead of looking at the light transmitted through skin tissue, we’re looking at the light being reflected from it,”

    Specialized video cameras record images in values of red, green and blue, with data from the green channel delivering data that makes it possible to extrapolate heart rate.

    “Hemoglobin in the blood has an absorption peak for green light,” said Gunther. “So when the heart pushes blood into arteries near the skin, more green light is absorbed and less is reflected. This means we see fewer green values in the images from the camera.”

    Reply
36. February 5, 2018 at 5:15 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Researchers use non-visible imaging approach to reveal secrets of ancient Egyptian mummies
    http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2018/01/researchers-use-non-visible-imaging-approach-to-reveal-secrets-of-ancient-egyptian-mummies.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-02-05&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1993997

    An international team lead by University College London (UCL) researchers has developed a non-destructive multimodal imaging technique that utilizes multispectral imaging and a range of other imaging methods to reveal text from ancient Egyptian mummy cases for research and analysis.

    First, the team describes the approach it took while utilizing multispectral imaging technology. Multispectral imaging, notes UCL, can be used to analyze the colors of objects and has been show to highlight otherwise illegible details in items such as the Archmides Palimpsest, the Syriac Galen Palimpsest, and Livingstone’s diaries. Provided by RB Toth Associates, the system utilizes an IQ260 achromatic camera from Phase One, which has a 60 MPixel CCD image sensor with a 6 µm pixel size and produces true black and white imagery. With this, a filter wheel with five long-pass filters and computer-controlled lighting with 12 different wavelengths from ultraviolet to near-infrared was used, which was supplied by Dr Bill Christens-Barry of Equipoise Imaging LLC

    In addition to the multispectral camera, the team of researchers utilized optical coherence tomography (OCT), which uses similar wavelengths to multispectral imaging, but works at a much smaller scale, according to UCL.

    Other imaging techniques utilized by the team include:

    X-ray fluorescence: An established technique which analyze secondary x-ray emitted from a sample that is being irradiated.
    Phase contrast x-ray: X-rays that pass through a sample develop a phase shift, depending on the material in which they passed through.
    X-ray microCT: Developed for medical applications and having been previously used for by imaging intact mummies, x-ray microCT is used to image objects such as small animals, medical samples, and other materials that require a resolution done to a few micrometers.

    Reply
37. February 5, 2018 at 5:15 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Amazon Go checkout-free convenience store opens to public
    http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2018/01/amazon-go-checkout-free-convenience-store-opens-to-public.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-02-05&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1993997

    Based on computer vision technologies and deep learning algorithms that enable shoppers to purchase goods without the need for lines or checkout, the Amazon Go convenience store is now open to the public.

    Located in Seattle, WA, USA at the company’s headquarters, Amazon Go was previously only open to Amazon employees. The shopping experience, according to Amazon, is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars. That is, computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning technologies. With “Just Walk Out” technology, users can enter the store with the Amazon Go app, shop for products, and walk out of the store without lines or checkout. The technology automatically detects when products are taken or returned to shelves and keeps track of them in a virtual cart. When the shopping is finished, users leave the store and their Amazon account is charged shortly thereafter.

    Reply
38. February 5, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    When to invest in LED strobe controllers
    http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/print/volume-23/issue-1/features/when-to-invest-in-led-strobe-controllers.html?cmpid=enl_vsd_vsd_newsletter_2018-02-05&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1993997

    LED strobe controllers offer many benefits for applications involving low contrast, motion, mark quality assessment, OCR and ambient lighting issues.

    Machine vision applications involving image contrasts below 20% present specific challenges. In such low contrast applications, even the slightest variation in LED output intensity can have a substantial impact on the performance of the inspection system.

    An LED array operating at 100% power generates heat that shortens the life of the LED array, gradually diminishing the output intensity over time. Even with many new LEDs, as they heat up from 25°C – 90°C, the brightness of the LEDs can drop by up to as much as 40%.

    This reduction in output intensity may begin manifesting itself by means of false rejects.

    Operating the LED array at reduced output or in strobed mode reduces heat generation and substantially slows the degradation of LED array output. LED controllers that regulate the current to the LED array rather than the voltage also provide more consistent illumination intensity

    Reply
39. February 6, 2018 at 9:51 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Cord cutting to nearly double by 2022
    http://www.broadbandtechreport.com/articles/2018/01/cord-cutting-to-nearly-double-by-2022.html?cmpid=enl_btr_btr_video_technology_2018-02-05&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24

    Kagan is predicting that cord cutting will nearly double by 2022, with broadband-only households expected to grow from 19 million in 2017 to 37.2 million by 2022. Kagan is a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.

    “A perfect storm of long-term trends including increase in streaming content suppliers, widespread utility-like status of broadband, and a demographic shift attributable to shrinking baby boomers and rising millennials, is yielding higher broadband-only home gains than initially anticipated, prompting a significant upward update for our projections,” said Tony Lenoir, senior Kagan research analyst.

    Kagan expects 38.4% of the combined residential cable and telco wireline broadband subscribers in 2022 to eschew legacy multichannel video distribution and rely mostly on a combination of broadband and over-the-air broadcast signals for home video entertainment.

    Reply
40. February 6, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Radiant Vision Systems lens allows in-headset display measurements for AR/VR devices
    http://www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/2018/01/radiant-vision-systems-lens-allows-in-headset-display-measurements-for-ar-vr-devices.html?cmpid=enl_lfw_lfw_enewsletter_2018-02-06&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=1995324

    Radiant Vision Systems (Redmond, WA), a leading provider of visual test and inspection systems for lighting and display devices, announces the release of a new AR/VR lens system for Radiant Vision Systems ProMetric imaging photometers and colorimeters. The AR/VR lens measures the visual quality of near-eye displays (NEDs) inside virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and augmented reality (AR) headsets. The lens design simulates the size, position, and field of view of the human eye, featuring an aperture at the front of the lens to position the imaging system’s entrance pupil within NED headsets at the same location as the human eye.

    Reply
41. February 8, 2018 at 8:19 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Reddit bans ‘involuntary porn’ communities that trade AI-generated celebrity videos
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/deepfakes-fake-porn-reddit-twitter-ban/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook

    Following other recent bans on the controversial practice of AI-generated, face-swapped porn, Reddit too has brought the ban hammer down. On Wednesday, the social platform shut down r/deepfakes and r/deepfakeNSFW, two popular hubs for the fake videos, which use algorithmic software to create virtual pornography depicting the likeness of unwilling participants.

    Reply
42. February 8, 2018 at 11:27 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Apple HomePod Initial Review – Surprisingly GOOD!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmHlp5CGfKk

    Apple HomePod hands on! My initial unboxing + review, setup, sound test, Homekit Siri test & more.

    HomePod is Apple’s Siri based take at a 2018 Smart Speaker. It’s packing an A8 chip, a unique woofer/tweeter design but how does it sound and how does it work with HomeKit? Apple Music works fantastic but what about Spotify?

    Reply
43. February 8, 2018 at 10:48 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Large Format… Videography?
    https://hackaday.com/2018/02/08/large-format-videography/

    Large format photography gives a special quality to the images it produces, due to the differences in depth of field and resolution between it and its more modern handheld equivalents. Projecting an image the size of a dinner plate rather than a postage stamp has a few drawbacks though when it comes to digital photography, sensor manufacturersdo not manufacture consumer products at that size.

    [Zev Hoover] has created a large format digital camera, and is using it not only for still images but for video. And it’s an interesting device, for the way he’s translated a huge large-format image into a relatively small sensor in a modern SLR. He’s projecting the image from the large-format lens and bellows onto a screen made from an artist’s palette,

    How I built a large-format (8×10) video camera
    https://www.dpreview.com/articles/3423280809/how-i-built-a-large-format-8×10-video-camera

    I am not really sure if it should be called a ‘large format camera’ or a ‘large format adapter’—is format determined by the size of the imaging plane, or that of the sensor? Usually those are one and the same but not with a rig like this—but either way it records real large format images and just from my first results, I think they look fantastic.

    Reply
44. February 9, 2018 at 3:05 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Neural Network Electrocutes You to Take Better Photographs
    https://hackaday.com/2018/02/09/neural-network-electrocutes-you-to-take-better-photographs/

    Taking your brain out of the photography loop is the goal of [Peter Buczkowski]’s “prosthetic photographer.” The idea is to use a neural network to constantly analyze a scene until maximal aesthetic value is achieved, at which point the user unconsciously takes the photograph.

    Prosthetic Photographer
    https://hackaday.io/project/47538-prosthetic-photographer

    The Prosthetic Photographer forces its users with electrical impulses to unwillingly take beautiful pictures.

    Reply
45. February 9, 2018 at 3:50 pm

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    How to Design a Micro Speaker Enclosure
    http://www.cui.com/blog/how-to-design-a-micro-speaker-enclosure?utm_source=CUI+Updates&utm_campaign=74dfbf3dbf-2-7-blog-round-up&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0afa235bc7-74dfbf3dbf-171231617

    Enclosures for mini and micro speakers are similar in purpose to those for larger speakers; to protect the speaker and to enhance the audio volume. Enclosures designed with a few simple guidelines will meet the needs of most applications.

    Reply
46. February 11, 2018 at 8:42 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
    YouTube says creators posting videos harmful to users may lose their monetization options and eligibility to be recommended on the platform

    YouTube will remove ads and downgrade discoverability of channels posting offensive videos
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/09/youtube-adds-more-formal-measures-to-sanction-channels-that-post-harmful-videos-including-discoverability-downgrade/

    After barring Logan Paul earlier today from serving ads on his video channel, YouTube has now announced a more formal and wider set of sanctions it’s prepared to level on any creator that starts to post videos that are harmful to viewers, others in the YouTube community, or advertisers.

    As it has done with Paul (on two occasions now), the site said it will remove monetization options on the videos, specifically access to advertising programs.

    “We may remove a channel’s eligibility to be recommended on YouTube, such as appearing on our home page, trending tab or watch next,”

    Now, the site is turning over a new leaf, using a large team of human curators and AI to track the content of what’s being posted

    removing ads was only a partial sanction, since Paul monetizes in other ways, including merchandising. So it’s interesting to see YouTube adding more details and ways of sanctioning creators, that will hit at their very virality.

    Reply
47. February 13, 2018 at 8:41 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Sony’s New Cassette Boomboxes – East meets West
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mYoi3uJEi0

    A review of the latest Sony Cassette Radio boombox models from the UK & Japan.
    The CFD-S70 can be found on Amazon

    Reply
48. February 13, 2018 at 8:41 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Hit Rewind: Cassettes Are Making A Comeback
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehaRVdNDWUU

    First vinyl records made a comeback, and now there’s an even newer trend in music: The lowly tape cassette is making a comeback, and there are sales numbers to prove it. TODAY’s Carson Daly reports.

    Reply
49. February 13, 2018 at 8:43 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Playing 50 YEAR OLD cassette tapes!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD08dkTdb5E

    some of the oldest cassette tapes from the 1960s and early 1970s. Do they even still play, and how good (or bad) do they sound? Let’s find out!

    Reply
50. February 13, 2018 at 8:45 am

    Tomi Engdahl says:

    Does a Cassette Tape Sound Better Than a CD?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVpOdpRDYF4

    This is a fun video that we made to compare the audio quality of a cassette tape and CD. Enjoy!

    Cassette Tape vs MP3 ~ Haddaway – What Is Love
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcYF-3hBU1w

    Reply