us8676045 – Photography lighting (Amazon) – Issued Patent

Photographing subjects against a white background, where that background is lit to, in effect, be overexposed and thus providing what is known as a high key image is a standard technique. see the following link for more info.. in fact looking at the pictorial description it looks remarkably similar..

http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-complete-beginners-guide-to-shooting-high-key–photo-2949

via us8676045 – Photography lighting (Amazon) – Issued Patent – PRIOR ART REQUEST – Ask Patents.

Lapse-Pi Touch – A Touchscreen Timelapse Controller

Functionality

The User interface allows you to:

  • position the dolly on the rail via the motor control buttons
  • change the motor pulse duration between shots
  • change the delay between shots
  • change the number of shots
  • see what time is left for the current sequence
  •  start and stop the time-lapse

And it’s all done using a few simple screens with a simplistic, easy-to-use touchscreen user interface. The following video shows it all in action.

via Lapse-Pi Touch – A Touchscreen Timelapse Controller.

The Hackers Who Recovered NASA’s Lost Lunar Photos

When they learned through a Usenet group that former NASA employee Nancy Evans might have both the tapes and the super-rare Ampex FR-900 drives needed to read them, they jumped into action. They drove to Los Angeles, where the refrigerator-sized drives were being stored in a backyard shed surrounded by chickens. At the same time, they retrieved the tapes from a storage unit in nearby Moorpark, and things gradually began to take shape. Funding the project out of pocket at first, they were consumed with figuring out how to release the images trapped in the tapes.

via The Hackers Who Recovered NASA’s Lost Lunar Photos | Raw File | WIRED.

The resulting framelets had to be individually reassembled in Photoshop. After kluging through countless engineering problems (try finding a chemical substitute for whale oil to lubricate tape heads), the LOIRP team was able to single out and reproduce the famous earthrise image. This proof of concept brought the first NASA funding in 2008, and the team recently completed processing the entire tape collection.

Bullet Time Effect – Frozen Raspberry Pi

I’d been working on a PiFace interface so I could use my Raspberry Pi without a keyboard and monitor. For a bit of fun I wondered if I could turn it into a simple digital camera, that would take a picture when a button was pressed, and to my pleasant surprise, discovered you could. An idea was beginning to form in my head. If I wrote a bit more code, instead of pressing a button to take a picture, I could trigger it remotely over a network. Furthermore, it cost a lot less than any other digital camera. Could the Raspberry Pi really recreate a bullet time style effect?

via Bullet Time Effect – Frozen Raspberry Pi | PiFace.

To everyone’s amazement, including mine, it actually worked! Raspberry Pi had frozen time, recreating a Hollywood effect for a fraction of the cost. You can see the results in the video above http://youtu.be/IqoA4HeBCQ4?t=2m19s

Stealth camera takes pictures virtually in the dark

In the team’s setup, low-intensity pulses of visible laser light scan an object of interest. The laser fires a pulse at a given location until a single reflected photon is recorded by a detector; each illuminated location corresponds to a pixel in the final image.

Variations in the time it takes for photons from the laser pulses to be reflected back from the object provides depth information about the body — a standard way of revealing three-dimensional structure. However, the algorithm developed by Kirmani and his colleagues provides that information using one-hundredth the number of photons required by existing light detection and ranging (LIDAR) techniques, which are commonly used in remote mapping or measuring forest biomass, for instance.

via Stealth camera takes pictures virtually in the dark : Nature News & Comment.

Drones and aerial mapping


From Professional aerial mapping

Collects aerial photography of 1-10sqkm in a single flight at down to 5cm precision.
The eBee has a flight time of up to 45 minutes allowing to cover areas of up to 10sqkm in a single flight. With its 16MP camera it can shoot aerial imagery at down to 3cm/pixel resolution. The images can then be used to create maps and elevation models with a precision of 5cm.

Disclaimer:  The above does seem like a sponsored ad but this site does not advertise for anyone.  I am interested in drone technology and creative applications for them and found this interesting.   Click here for more references to drones on this site.

DJI Phantom Quadcopter with GoPro Mount

The DJI Phantom Quadcopter with GoPro Mount is a remote controlled, four-propeller quadcopter with a removable GoPro camera mount for capturing POV footage of flight. The compact and lightweight Phantom is ready-to-fly right out of the box and it includes the remote control unit and receiver, which gives the device a transmission range of up to 984.25′ (300m). The Phantom also features an intelligent Naza-M + GPS multi-rotor autopilot system, which supports two flight modes and a failsafe function that will automatically trigger the device to land safely when control is lost.

via DJI Phantom Quadcopter with GoPro Mount CP.PT.000001 B&H Photo.

Planet Labs Unveils Plan To Launch 28 Nanosats on Antares’ 1st Cargo Run

SAN FRANCISCO — Planet Labs is seeking to revolutionize the Earth imaging industry with a constellation of 28 nanosatellites designed to offer frequent, low-cost images of any point on the globe. By providing high-resolution imagery quickly and inexpensively, the company’s founders hope to expand dramatically the customer base for Earth imagery and the use of that information to address humanitarian, environmental and business concerns

via Planet Labs Unveils Plan To Launch 28 Nanosats on Antares’ 1st Cargo Run | SpaceNews.com.

Get An Inside Look At The Rackspace ‘Castle’ Via Google Street View

Recently, we had a photographer come out to create an inside Google Street View of our HQ so our customers, friends and family – anyone, really – can get a virtual feel for what it is like to work at Rackspace. There’s a ton to see.

via Get An Inside Look At The Rackspace ‘Castle’ Via Google Street View – The Official Rackspace Blog.