-
- Watches that double as video cameras
are being developed by British researchers. The new technology is also
likely to be used in toys that will be able to recognize their owners and
greet them. A team at Hewlett-Packard's Bristol research laboratory has
built a prototype video-camera watch that can take both still and moving
pictures.
-
- It is based on a new type of camera chip
developed and made by Hewlett-Packard. Most of the functions needed for
a video camera have been put on a single chip. Current digital cameras
use a CCD (charge coupled device) chip to capture light. The image then
has to be digitized and passed to a separate processor before it can be
displayed. This requires cameras to have a power supply, analog-to-digital
converter and a dedicated display screen and memory. Hewlett-Packard's
new CMOS (complementary metal oxide silicon) chip combines most of these
functions in a single chip that can capture images and process them as
well. CMOS chips are also able to share their memory, displays and power
supply with other devices, such as mobile phones. The watch camera is a
working prototype containing a full-color video camera that can capture
images at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.
The prototype version has a port that allows it to be connected to a video
recorder or television. According to Andrew Hunter, the inventor of the
watch camera, it is likely to be available first as a still camera. "The
main drawback is storage. Lots of people are working on small storage devices
but there isn't really anything available at the moment. However, I think
a still camera could be built today with a small drive capable of holding
10 to 20 pictures," he says. A production version of the camera would
also include a tiny disk drive and possibly an infrared or radio port allowing
the system to download images to a PC or television set. A tiny screen
could also be included to allow users to see what they have recorded.
Although Hunter says Hewlett-Packard has no plans to develop a commercial
version of the camera, the company is already selling the chip that forms
the heart of the system, allowing other companies to build tiny cameras
or put them into mobile phones. The parts for the prototype watch cost
less than £80 ($129), most of which was spent on a lens small enough
to fit inside the watch casing. According to Hunter, the eventual price
of a wristwatch camera could be far lower than today's digital cameras
that rely on CCD chips. The first commercial use for the new chip is likely
to be in toys. Hewlett-Packard has already developed prototype toys that
could be programmed to recognize their owner or track the movement of children.
"It will take a few years for people to realize what they can do,
but this chip could mean every toy being given the ability to sense its
surroundings," says Hunter. A new type of cyberpet could be created
with programming and sensors that allow it to do something useful.
"Cyberpets could double as babysitters, with built-in video cameras
and microphones letting you monitor your child from anywhere in the world,"
says Hunter. Hewlett-Packard is also working on a new type of still camera
that can record audio, so users could record the ambient sound of their
holiday or make an "audio portrait" of family members. Current
cameras can record a few seconds of audio but are designed for short comments
about the picture. In recent trials in the Bristol area, families usually
recorded about 30 seconds of speech with each picture. Hewlett-Packard
is now developing a prototype system allowing prints and audio to be stored
in an album. According to David Frolich, a principal researcher engineer
at the Bristol laboratory, the system could even use an audio file embedded
in prints. "The trials we did were very basic and used a dictaphone
taped to a camera. However, we found people liked the idea of capturing
audio, and it changed the way they used a camera — bad pictures
can be saved by the audio, for example. "We now want to find a way
to put the audio with the pictures, whether it is in the form of a photo
album or even some kind of chip embedded in the print," says Frolich.
|
