hardware

Xilinx Inc revealed their Industrial Imaging Targeted Design Platform for applications such as high-resolution digital video conferencing, video surveillance, and machine vision systems. The platform has a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA, and includes several reference designs. More information is available in a press release.

Researchers at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the University of Oxford have developed a single-sensor method to capture high resolution image and high-speed video. Their method divides the sensor pixels into groups that are allowed to be viewed either as a larger still image or as a high-speed video sequence in rapid succession. More details are available in a press release.

In an interview, Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics, provided more details about the LS3 robot. Boston Dynamics is known for its BigDog invention, a four legged robot that could navigate over rough terrain (click here for the YouTube video).

Intermap Technologies and Hella K GaA Hueck & Co are collaborating to design a predictive front lighting system for vehicles. Intermap would integrate its high-resolution 3D road geometries and information supplied by the vehicle’s camera system with Hella’s front lighting system to provide a headlamp that adjusts automatically in road bends and slopes. More information is available in a press release.

Lockheed Martin has announced that is has been awarded $118 million to deliver advanced targeting and navigation technology to the Turkish Air Force. According to the press release, the systems used mid-wave infrared (FLIR), providing enhanced target detection and identification capability as well as low-altitude navigation in both daylight and darkness.

ORAKA Technology, a company based in New Zealand, has developed a machine vision system to grade asparagus spears. Images taken by high speed cameras at 12 frames per second are used to determine the diameter, color, shape and maturity of the asparagus spears. More information is available from an online document.

Hella Aglaia Mobile Vision GmbH has designed its Automatic Passenger Counting System (AVC 1) using Impulse C high level synthesis tools and Xilinx FPGAs. The tools provide a C programming interface to quickly prototype hardware systems.

Sony Corporation announced that it would postpone the launch of the motion controller for its PlayStation 3 until Fall 2010. The controller detects user location and hand gesture using a camera. According to a Reuters article, the company wanted more available games that use the new controller's functions before launching the product.

In a January 2010 BBC blog on technology, Nvidia’s CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, alludes to a "future where gesture recognition, computer vision and security become a lot easier" with GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) technology.

Earthmine, a startup focused on improving augmented reality, is developing 3-D images of cities. The accurate city maps enable better overlays of augmented reality tags, which are often poorly placed in today’s applications.