Revolutionary 'Flat' Camera Could Make Your Next Phone As Thin As a Credit Card

FlatCam – Miniature Camera – Sensor Chip with Grid Coded Mask

According to Rice News, a miniature camera developed out of the Rice University labs comprises of a sensor chip with grid like coded mask that enables various channels of light to reach the sensor. FlatCam is said to be similar to a microchip, which utilises computer algorithms to process whatever is detected by the sensor after which it tends to transfigure the measurements into videos and images.

An assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice, Veeraraghavan has commented that `as traditional cameras get smaller, their sensors also tend to get smaller and this means that they collect very little light. The low light performance of a camera is tied to the surface space of the sensor.

 However since all the designs of the cameras are generally cubes, surface space is tied to thickness. The design decouples the two parameters, offering the ability to use the enhanced light-collision potential of large sensors with a really thin device’.

The FlatCam could ultimately be turned into wearable, foldable as well as disposable cameras. However, the team state that photographers would be more likely to stay with lens-based systems.

Several Possibilities – Moving from Cube Design to a Surface

Developers state that the camera would be a necessary step in other applications. Baraniuk the Victor E. Cameron Professor of electrical and Computer engineering states that moving from a cube design to a surface without forgoing performance, gives rise to several possibilities.

 He added that they can make curved cameras, or wallpaper which is actually a camera and one can have a camera on credit card or a camera in an ultrathin tablet computer.The model tends to produce 512-by-512 images, a resolution which the researchers are expecting to increase as it tends to progress.

The models do not seem to have viewfinders, however if necessary, researchers state that a cell phone screen could someday do the job. Rice alumnus and assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, co-author Aswin Sankaranarayanan states that smart phone have already featured powerful computers and hence we can imagine computing at least a low resolution preview in real time.

Heritage Shared with Lens-less Pinhole Camera

FlatCam tends to share its heritage with lens-less pinhole camera though instead of a single hole it has a grid-like coded mask placed close to the sensor. Each aperture enables a slightly different set of light data to extentto the sensor. Raw data sent to the back end process, presently a desktop, is organized into an image and just as larger light field cameras; the picture tends to get focused to different depths after the collection of the data.

The lead author of the paper is Rice postdoctoral researcher, Rice graduate Salman Asif together with co-author Ali Ayremlou. Rice alumnus Sankaranarayan is now an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University while Baraniuk is the Victor E, Cameron Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice is Veeraraghavan.

The research team would be delivering a talk with regards to its work at the Extreme Imaging Workshop on December 17 in Santiago, Chile and published paper is also made available through ArXiv, an online service

Movavi Screen Capture Review

Are you able to record video footage directly from your screen? Despite what you may think it really isn’t all that complicated to do so – especially if you’re using the Movavi Screen Capture. More importantly, once you can capture video from your screen you’ll find that it’ll be extremely useful and allow you to record streaming videos and webinars, save Skype calls, or even create your very own ‘how to’ video guides or tutorials.

The reason why the Movavi Screen Capture excels at enabling you to record video footage directly from your screen is largely because of its unique approach. Unlike other software that is notoriously complicated and difficult to use, the Movavi Screen Capture has been designed so that it is as intuitive and straightforward as possible. In most cases, recording the video that you need will just take a couple of clicks.

For all its simplicity in terms of how easy it is to use however, the Movavi Screen Capture still comes with tons of features that will allow you a lot of flexibility. Some of the more interesting features include:

• Controlling all aspects of the capture settings, including the capture region, frame rate, and audio source.
• Setting the capture to also record keyboard and mouse actions by displaying the keys that are pressed on screen as well as highlighting the mouse cursor and playing a custom sound on mouse clicks.
• Easily manage the recording process through convenient hotkeys and timers to automatically stop the recording.
• Quickly and effectively optimize the videos that you capture for any device or platform using the hundreds of presets that are available.

With all these features, you should be able to capture exactly the video that you need and then save it in the best possible format for whatever device or platform you intend to use it on. As you can see you don’t need to know the first thing about video formats or settings to do so – which once again is part of the user-friendly design of the Movavi Screen Capture.

When it comes to video recording software, the Movavi Screen Capture really has no equal in terms of how easy to use and yet feature-rich it is. Once you give it a try for yourself you’ll be able to see firsthand just how quickly you’re able to familiarize yourself with the software and start recording the videos you require.

Samsung Patent Filings Reveal Exciting New Smartphone Designs

Samsung’s Foldable/Tab Style Design/Scrollable/Bendable Smartphone

Samsung’s patent for new folding and scroll style smartphone designs has been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office recently wherein either of these designs would be substantial inventions for smartphone displays which tends to be led by square flat designs. The patent includes a foldable smartphone, tab style design, scrollable smartphone and a bendable smartphone design.

With the folding phone, the user has access to a screen even while the device tends to be folded and can access additional detailed commands when it is opened like a book. The patent filing also discusses anther sensational new design wherein the phone can roll up as well as unroll like an ancient scroll. The improvement of bendable, rollable, foldable smartphone displays has been reported for years.

Samsung had promoted a concept video on a clamshell style device on YouTube somewhere in 2013. However this patent filing offers some hope that smartphone display would make its way to the consumers. Samsung had already created the Galaxy Round, the first smartphone having curved display. Probably there could be more appealing designs coming up.

Flexible Displays

It is said that for years, Samsung had been working on flexible displays. As per Digital Trends, Samsung had revealed its first foldable phone prototype at the CES 2014 and it was rumoured that its foldable device would be making its debut in 2016. The most regularly depicted design invention in Venture Beat, is a handset which tends to unfold to a full sized tablet.

It eems like a horizontal clamshell wherein the single fold tends to open the same way as a book or a magazine and the device forms as a smartphone when folded and a tablet when unfolded. However, it is not known how the screen could be adapted when in a folded position. The device either tends to fold with the two halves of the screen touching when closed or it could in the opposition structure where both the screens tend to face outward.It has been described as a rollable device by Patenty Mobile.

Users have the option of changing the form of the device by taking the tab and rolling out the flexible display or by pressing a button or an icon which is available at one end of the scroll. This opens the scroll with the preferred app ready for use once the device is scrolled out.

Bendable Design – Bend at Certain Pre-set degree

When the calendar icon on the scrolled device is pressed for instance, the device tends to un-scroll with its full display, portraying the calendar app. The adjustable display of the display in scroll style could include an organic light which emits diode – OLED or flexible LCD display, replacing glass substrate in the display with flexible plastic materials.

The tab style design smartphone does not tend to fold in half like its earlier foldable design but folds, off-centre leaving a tab screen exposed towards the left end which displays the users’ favourite apps. Similar to the scrolled device, the tab style design can be unfolded whenever the user touches the app icon towards the left of the display.

The bendable design enables the smartphone to be folded by being bent and is likely to be bent at a certain degree pre-set by the users.

A Google Engineer is Testing USB Type-C Cables so you don't have to

USB Type-C – Reversible Design/Super-Fast Speed/High Power Output

USB Type-C is certainly the future cable, due to its reversible design together with super-fast speed and high power output. Apple as well as Google has both bet big on its normal predictable ubiquity by using it in the new MacBook as well as both of the Nexus phones. But it will still be some time before it would completely replace the usual Type-A and B connectors, which means that those who had rushed earlier would have to stock up on new cable, In other words there are quite a lot of third party cables which have not been fully tested and are likely to destroy the new device.

Fortunately, a Google engineer has been testing out possibly dangerous cables prior to purchasing them. Google’s Benson Leung works on the Chrombook Pixel line and is closely familiar with Type-C together with its requirements. Due to various devices gradually coming out which tend to support the standard, he took the initiative of holding third-party vendors liable, by reviewing their cables on Amazon stating that he had got fed up with the early cables from third party vendors which so blatantly display the specification.

Out-of-Spec Cables

There seems to be plenty out-of-spec cables but Leung’s Amazon profile indicates that there are handfuls ones which are reliable. Leung challenges this assertion as it applies to USB Type-C cables and the results are not too good. Leung who is a software engineer on the Chrome OS team and an engineer on the Chromebook Pixel as well as Pixel C team reviewed several multiple USB Type-C convertor cables.

He evaluated each of the cables manufactured by companies like CableCreation, Belkin, Frieq, iOrange, Juiced Systems, Orzly Monba, Kupx and Techmatte to find out if they met the USB group specifications. The results seemed to be mixed. The cables meeting the relevant USB-IF specifications for their respective features were Frieq, Belkin and iOrange while the rest have one of two serious issues.

CableCreation’s adapters have advertised as being 3A cables though do not cover internal circuitry capable of supporting that power level. Rather than utilising a resistor of value 56kΩ, CableCreation has used a 10kΩ pull up. The Kupx and Techmatte adapter tend to have the same problem while Monba’s adapter does not identify itself accurately at all.

Converters to Operate with Legacy Equipment

By marketing cable which have a Type-A plug on one side though a resistor which must only be utilised where there is a pure Type-C charging path, tends to risk damaging the older hardware with the out-of-spec cable. Some cables seem to be easy to test regarding functionality which may either work or not though several of them are not helpful.

Most of the USB Type-C cables which Leung tested will technically work but if it is connected to the correct hardware it may result in damaged equipment and this type of failure mode is invisible to the consumer. Users are under the impression that their chargers tend to work, unless they are presented with evidence to the contrary.If one tends to have a Chrombook Pixel of 2015 and would prefer to check if your USB Type-C cable contains the proper hardware, Leung has posted instruction on how to do the same over on Google+.

Though he is not signifying that these cables are inferior choice for anything but the Chromebook Pixel, the problem that he has recognized would be common to any hardware. It is especially important that companies need to get these issues corrected since USB Type-C naturally needs these converters to operate with legacy equipment.

Your Tablet Screen is Brought to You with the Aid of Carrots

Most of the people are looking forward to get some great deals on consumer electronic products like Smartphone, tablet, computer or TV during this holiday season. The common component among all these products, which help in enhancing the user experience, is the ‘display’. A German company named Merck KGaA is the world’s oldest chemicals and pharmaceuticals maker and it also happens to be the leading supplier of liquid crystals which are used in display. Currently Merck produces astonishingly more than 60% of all liquid crystals, which are sold on global scale. It is simply way ahead of its rivals companies from China and Japan in this area.

Liquid crystals bring better quality and definition in display

Horts Stegmeyer is a well known scientist and author of a variety of books on liquid crystals. He stated that millions of consumers who own the Smartphone, computer and televisions don’t know that their display contains the liquid crystals which helps in delivering high definition color reproduction. Stegemeyer further elaborates that almost 80% of fundamental research in the field of liquid crystals are done by Merck. Merck is also applauded for pioneering the innovation in this field.

The applications of liquid crystals are quite vast and it is even used as security holograms on the banknotes apart from being used in consumer electronics industry on wider scale.

What are liquid crystals? 

Liquid crystals were first discovered by two scientists namely Austrian Botanist Friedrich Reinitzer and the German physicist Otto Lehmann in 1888. These scientists were experimenting on the natural substances, which are found in the carrots, and they found a relatively strange phenomenon wherein few of the substances tend to have different melting points. At the arrival of first melting these natural substances simply melted into a cloudy liquid while reaching the second melting point cloudiness disappeared and a clear transparent liquid left behind. This particular new state of matter is known as ‘liquid crystal’, which has found dominant usage in the development of display panels.

At that time people didn’t know what to do with this new finding. Reinitzer and Lehmann sought the assistance of Merck in validating their finding and Merck started the production of liquid crystals way back in 1904.

Merck still pioneering the research in liquid crystal field

Merck family had kept a firm hold in keeping the research alive in the field of liquid crystal, which helped consumers in having magnificent displays in their phones, tablets, televisions and much more. At the beginning of the 21st century cathode ray tube started to phase out and finally be replaced by the flat panels. It was then Merck bet on aggressively researching and polishing the liquid crystals paved their way to gain some credible profit.

The slow and steady rise in the Smartphones and tablets began a trend where people were only looking flat panel display in more and more bigger terms. Merck has dominated the liquid crystal market and business for a long time and it generated huge profit from which are used to finance research for another screen technology called OLED.