Arlington, VA—The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced its 2011 CES Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award honorees. The International CES Innovations Awards honor outstanding advancements in design and engineering across 35 consumer electronics product categories. In the digital imaging category, Kodak earned the Best of Innovations Award for its PlaySport video camera.
“This prestigious awards program gives consumer technology manufacturers and developers an opportunity to have their products judged by a distinguished panel of designers, engineers and press,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “The strength of this year’s submissions demonstrates the vitality and innovation within the CE industry. We congratulate all finalists for their engineering creativity and design acumen.”
The Best of Innovations Awards are earned by the products with the highest judges’ scores and will be featured in the Innovations 2011 Design and Engineering Showcase in the lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center at the 2011 International CES, which runs January 6-9, 2011.
Entries are judged based on overall engineering qualities related to technical specifications and materials, aesthetics and design qualities, the product’s intended use and function, unique features and how the design and innovation of the product compares to others in the marketplace.
The Best of Innovations honorees for 2011 in the digital imaging category follow.
Adobe Systems: Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 & Premiere Elements 9 Bundle. This newest releases of the no. 1 selling consumer photo- and video-editing software offers a complete solution at a compelling price point. The bundle features the tools needed to make the most of photos and videos, including creating movies with tools that automatically fix audio problems, trim bad footage, stabilize shaky shots and correct color and lighting. And any video can be turned into an animated film with the cartoon effects feature. The applications also make creating scrapbook and photo book pages easy as well as uploading projects to social networking sites. adobe.com
Casio America: EX-H20G Hybrid-GPS Camera. With Casio’s Hybrid GPS technology and autonomic positioning, the EX-H20G offers precise location data for the geotagging of photos and videos and is the first camera to geotag indoors. It displays a user’s current location—and geotagged photos and videos—on a map viewed on its 3.0-inch LCD. It is preloaded with information on 10,000 sightseeing photo spots and contains world atlas data with maps of more than 150 cities worldwide. casiousa.com
Eastman Kodak: PlaySport Video Camera. This Best of Innovations awardee is a pocketsize digital videocam with a vertical form factor that shoots 1080p Full HD video and takes 5 MP still images above or below water. It is waterproof up to 10 feet with a rugged casing. Built-in software and USB output allow users to edit and upload videos to sites like YouTube and Facebook.
Kodak Pulse Digital Frame. This 7-inch touch-screen digital frame comes with Wi-Fi connectivity and a personal e-mail address so consumers can send pictures wirelessly to the frame from a computer, from Facebook and Kodak Gallery sites, or from any device that has e-mail capability. This enables the Pulse to display a constant stream of new pictures by automatically refreshing when consumers, or their family and friends, add pictures to their albums. kodak.com
Nikon: D3100. The Nikon D3100 is aimed at the enthusiastic DSLR market and aspiring photographers by providing an easy-to-use and affordable entrance to the world of Nikon DSLRs. It features 14.2MP capture, Full HD 1080p video recording with sound and full-time autofocus with selectable AF modes, and a 3.0-inch LCD. Its guide mode offers onboard assistance to aid in mode selection. nikonusa.com
Oregon Scientific: ATC9K All-Terrain Video Camera. This waterproof and shock-resistant high-definition camera can be strapped to a helmet, handlebars, surfboard or snowboard for capturing extreme sports on video. www2.oregonscientific.com
Panasonic: HDC-SDT750. The first consumer 3D camcorder, it uses a 3D conversion lens to shoot “true-to-life 3D video content” for playback on Viera HDTVs. The SDT750 also records 1080p Full HD video in AVCHD, when the 3D conversion lens is unattached, and it includes a 46mm f/1.5-3 Leica Dicomar lens with 12x optical zoom.
Panasonic H-FT012 3D Lens. The Lumix G 12.5mm f/12 3D lens for Lumix G-series Micro Four Thirds cameras has two optical systems installed within the diameter of its lens mount, creating stereo images formed by the left and right lenses that are processed with a 3D image-processing system. It allows instant 3D shooting (65mm equivalent) without time lag between left and right images—even when shooting objects in motion.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2. This mirrorless 16MP Micro Four Thirds-format interchangeable-lens camera is more compact than most DSLRs and shoots 1080p Full HD video. It provides touch-screen control of stills and video with autofocus for both, has built in Mega OIS image stabilization and RAW shooting capability. Add a Panasonic G 12.5mm f/12 3D Micro 4/3 lens and it shoots real 3D images. panasonic.com
Samsung Electronics America: NX 20-50mm f/3.5-5.6 ED Lens. This intuitive i-Function lens lets users control their Samsung NX cameras through the lens, which is proactive and communicates with the camera body. Its i-Function button enables users to scroll through manual settings, and a focus ring changes parameters for each setting.
Samsung NX100. The first mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera to feature a lens-based camera control interface, the NX100 enables users to control and set key camera settings directly from the lens. It also features a 3.0-inch AMOLED screen and 720p HD video recording. samsung.com
Sony Electronics: Sony a (Alpha) SLT-A55V DSLR. This compact eye-level EVF camera features a 16.2MP APS-C sensor and an innovative stationary translucent mirror that reflects part of the incoming light upward to the AF sensors. The result is continuous autofocus to the instant of exposure, whether shooting 1080p Full HD video or firing off bursts at up to 10 fps. sony.com
Additionally, in the enabling technologies category, SanDisk was named a CES Innovations 2011 Design and Engineering Award honoree for its 64GB solid state drive (iSSD) that is smaller than a postage stamp, weighs less than a paper clip and is the fastest high-capacity embedded storage device at its physical size. sandisk.com
