2013 PMA@CES: The Hidden Treasures

2013 PMA@CES: The Hidden Treasures

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Most of us who have been doing trade shows for quite some time understand the allure of the larger booths that greet us the minute we step onto the show floor. Music blaring, lights flashing and models, well, modeling of course. Those mammoth exhibits are always impressive, as is the imaging tech they are showing off.

Undoubtedly you’ll be hearing announcements from the “big boys,” so we thought we’d take our annual trip to the outer reaches of the PMA@CES show floor in the LVH and, in some instances, off the floor completely, to tip you off on some of the coolest stuff at this year’s event. Sans the music, lights and pretty faces, there is some amazing new technology being demonstrated all over the PMA@CES expanse.

And, of course, we’ll also venture a bit farther, to the various other halls that encompass the entirety of the 2013 International CES to show you that digital imaging tech wasn’t confined to the parameters of the PMA@CES LVH location.

So put on your most comfortable pair of walking shoes . . . we promise it’ll be worth the trip.

2,000 Pics a Day. How about a groundbreaking camera that decides itself when to take the shot? Developed by British motion capture company OMG Plc, the Autographer uses five built-in sensors and software developed by Microsoft to chose the best moment to capture an image without any intervention from the user.

The high-resolution pictures, which can number 2,000 in a day, can then be combined to create a visual record of an event like a party, a music festival or a typical day in the life of the owner. The Autographer, which the company suggests be worn around the neck, clipped to clothing or placed in a particular vantage point, is the first consumer device from OMG, whose stop-motion technology is used in fields ranging from computer game development to surveying roads.

The company originally developed an earlier version of this camera as a memory aid for people with dementia, but they recently decided to launch it to the broader consumer market after finding clients and their families were also using the device to record special occasions. The camera carries an SRP of $650, and the company claims a U.S. launch could be forthcoming in early 2013. omgplc.com

Artsy Couture.
We’ve been fans of Artsy Couture’s gallery block products for quite some time, and if you’re looking to offer your customers something truly beautiful on the photo merchandise front, check them out. The company displayed their three distinct styles of gallery blocks at the booth: Floating, basically a series of smaller gallery blocks floating over a larger block background; Single, a single professional print laminated over a solid wood construction; and Mini, a series of smaller floating blocks over a smaller gallery block background. All very cool and just the kind of thing that has the photo merchandise market poised for big-time growth this year. artsycouture.com 

Wafer-Level Cam Advances. If you’re interested in taking a peek at where mobile imaging is headed, take a look at Nemotek’s two-element wafer-level camera, Exiguus H12-A2. The company explained to us that by leveraging the capabilities of its two-element lens, Exiguus H12-A2 features high resolution and low distortion all within its ultra-small form factor. The company claims that the lens’s overall distortion is lower than 0.5%, resulting in a significantly sharper and clearer image than a traditional one-element lens. The company obviously has its eye focused on the smartphone market as well as several other mobile devices and gaming applications.

Nemotek added that the Exiguus H12-A2 offers sophisticated camera functions, such as autoexposure control, auto white balance, black level calibration, noise reduction, flicker detection and avoidance. The camera also features color correction, color saturation, lens shading correction, software reset as well as chrominance control and maintains the ability to withstand extreme temperatures.

“Today we unveil the first camera that successfully incorporates a two-element wafer-lens and is technically more complex while providing better resolution than any current wafer-level offering on the market to date,” said Hatim Limati, vice president of sales and marketing for Nemotek Technologie. “The Exiguus H12-A2 produces extraordinarily clear, sharp pictures which make it the perfect choice for a wide range of applications. With this new achievement, we are able to further showcase our position as the industry’s leader in innovation and design.” nemotektechnologies.com

Foolography Is Here. The name certainly caught our attention as we passed by the booth, but though the name might suggest otherwise, the folks at foolography are most certainly not fooling around. The German company specializes in high-end geotagging devices and wireless barcode scanning solutions for DSLRs. Their goal, as they explain it, “Is to free photographers from all wires and cables on their cameras to enable them to concentrate on what they are best in—photography!”

At their PMA@CES booth, the company demoed why the leash that has tethered the camera to a GPS is no longer needed. Their tiny “unleashed” D200+ module sits directly on the camera, and it connects wirelessly to any Bluetooth GPS receiver, which can be kept in a pocket or backpack. It passes the GPS data on to the camera and the current location is embedded in the photo immediately within the camera. No additional steps are required at a computer.

The D200+ is essentially a tiny Bluetooth module that sits on the 10-pin port of Nikon’s pro and prosumer DSLRs and connects wirelessly to modern Bluetooth GPS receivers. The Bluetooth GPS device receives signals sent from several GPS satellites and uses this information to calculate its exact position. It then sends those coordinates to the camera, which in turn stores them in each photo when it is taken. Alternatively, the GPS logger stores its position every few seconds, with a time stamp, so that these points can be matched to photos taken at that time using synchronization software. foolography.com

Action Cam with a Twist.
The action cam category gets more interesting by the day it seems, and iON’s latest, dubbed The Game, only serves to sweeten the pot. The Game is a wireless HD sports video camera that touts a 2.4-inch color LCD, making it easy to shoot footage of golf putts or tennis swings, and then play back the video instantly for analysis. The camera captures video at 1080p with playback possible at 60, as well as 30, fps, allowing for more detailed, slow-motion analysis. The camera also takes photos and time-lapse sequences, and its built-in Wi-Fi communicates with iON’s iOS/Android apps to stream video, change settings and upload users’ best game footage to Facebook and YouTube via their smartphone. ioncamera.com

Diminutive Projecting Power.
Since just about everyone feels the need to be a big show off today, why not show off in style? With pico projection technology now showing up nearly everywhere, consumers have a more effective way to share photos and videos when hanging out. QP Optoelectronics, in partnership with Texas Instruments, is showing their CloudView pico projector they promise can project an image five to 10 times larger than the other pico projectors on the market.

“Consumers are wanting to have the largest displayed image possible at even the closest distances, such as a desk surface, tablecloth or even someone’s hand,” James Lupino, QP Optoelectonics’ vice president of Business Development told us. “Our innovations and this product in particular is the first to solve this demand of consumers, and we expect it will appeal to most users who expect pico projectors to produce a big-screen display in close proximity.”

The device is slightly bigger than a deck of cards, and QP includes their short throw light engine projection technology, which allows the projection of a 30-inch viewing area at less than a foot away from the target screen and up to 50 inches at a foot-and-half away. This could be taking the pico projection market in some new directions. www.qpopto.com

Wacom’s Latest Pen Tab. The photo-editing world is headed in some interesting new directions, and the folks at Wacom are always a part of this conversation. Their Cintiq 12WX tablet combines the advantages of a wide-format LCD monitor with Wacom’s professional pen input technology to give users the perfect photo-editing companion for their Mac/PC.

Extremely thin, the Cintiq 12W provides the flexibility to work on-screen; users can easily rotate the 12.1-inch TFT display when working flat on a desktop to find the best hand position or stand the Cintiq 12WX upright on the desktop and adjust the integrated stand to a comfortable angle. With a flexible 6.5-foot cord, it can even be used on a lap. No matter how it’s set up, the device marries the advantages of natural hand-eye coordination and the intuitive pen-on-paper feel of traditional media with the benefits of digital workflow. The highly sensitive pen-on-screen experience lets users work directly on images and applications in the most natural way possible. With “pen-point” accuracy, fast cursor control and 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity on the pen tip and eraser, the Cintiq 12WX provides increased control, comfort and productivity. wacom.com

Seagate Backup Plus. If you’re not pushing the importance of file storage and management to your customers, you certainly should be, as most of them are screaming for help in this area. Seagate’s external drives are typically reliable, fast and portable, and their new Backup Plus (500GB, 750GB and 1TB) is all of the above.

We especially like the drive’s installed Dashboard software. Three simple options—protect, save and share—provide everything needed to keep data safe, accessible and well, shareable. The protect option lets users perform manual or automatic backups, while the save option will automatically copy any photos or videos posted to a Facebook or Flickr account to the external USB hard drive. Lastly, the share option simply lets consumers push any saved files to their Facebook account. Very cool setup—you should check it out at seagate.com.

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