pluggedin

Kodak Z1012 and Z1015 Digital Cameras

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (JenniferCisney) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:19:09 EDT

After last week's press event excitement, I almost to mention Kodak's two new digital cameras, the Kodak Easyshare Z1015 IS Zoom and Z1012 IS Zoom Digital Cameras. They are both exciting in their own right.

"Kodak has a pair of super zoom cameras that actually may be able to spot a needle in a haystack. The Z1012 IS and Z1015 IS are 10MP cams that zoom up to 12X and 15X, respectively." - Gizmodo

"Kodak's EasyShare Z1015 IS shooter packs 15x zoom, 10 megapixel sensor" - Engadget

Hurray for Easyshare Software v7.0: Search

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (MichelleFranchi) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:00:00 EDT

Part 3 of 3: Search

Welcome back! Have you visited www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw to download your free copy of EasyShare software v7.0 for Windows yet? If not, I am sure that you will after you read about the final new feature, search!

The new search capability in EasyShare software v7.0 is what makes tagging your pictures worth your while. If you did not see it in the screenshots posted in the star rating or tagging entries from the other day, here is what the new search bar looks like:

This new feature allows you to find any picture quick and easy. Simply type in a tag or caption and hit enter. The really cool part of search is when you enter multiple tags. Just be sure to separate each word with a semicolon and no spaces. Rather than typing tags, I find it easier to select from the drop down menu:

So here is how the feature works. If I search for pictures of Maddox in my collection, EasyShare software v7.0 brings up the 293 images that I have tagged as Maddox. The pictures span over seven years and come from many different albums in my collection.

If I click back into the entire collection and search on the term Halloween, the result yields 49 images that I have tagged as Halloween. These images may or may not have additional tags associated with them.

Now, if I click back into my entire collection and search on both terms "Maddox;Halloween" the result yields 37 pictures that are tagged both Maddox and Halloween, allowing me to quickly see all of the different Halloween costumes that Maddox has worn over the years.

When searching on multiple tags, there are a couple of different choices available to you in the advanced search options menu:

The "result matches all" is similar to an "and" function meaning that the search will only yield pictures that matches all of the terms typed in. For example, if you were to search for Maddox;Halloween you would only get back images that were tagged both Maddox and Halloween.

The "result matches any" is similar to an "or" function. For example, if you were to search for Maddox; Halloween you would see pictures that were just tagged Maddox, just tagged Halloween, and pictures that were tagged as both.

Most people organize their pictures in albums by time. Even if the name of the album is not a specific date, there is generally a date associated with the group of pictures. Tagging allows you to eliminate the element of time and view your pictures by theme. When organizing pictures by theme, stories will often emerge that were not apparent before. EasyShare software v7.0 gives you the tools to find your pictures quickly and tell better stories with those pictures. Download it now, for free! www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw

Kodak's newest innovative products

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (JenniferCisney) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:12:09 EDT

I don't get a lot of time to hang out in our development labs. I get glimpses from time to time which always piques my curiosity. When I heard that we were announcing several new products at a press event, I was thrilled to go and get a first hand look at what is coming.

It's exciting to be at an event with so much energy and anticipation. I was amazed at how many new and different products we had to show. It's hard to say which one got the most attention.

This is the Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera. Even though it is pocket sized it captures HD video (720p at 60fps) and is really easy to use.

The Zi6 comes with built in USB, an SD/SDHC card slot, 2.4" LCD screen, cables for viewing videos on your HDTV and pre-charged AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries and a battery charger.

The icing on the cake is the new relationship between Kodak and YouTube that enables you to upload videos directly to YouTube from the Zi6 in a snap.

Oh, and another cool feature is you can playback video in slow motion.

Look for the Zi6 in late September 08. I am planning on attaching one to my dog, then taking it on a roller coaster and then my scooter...

I gotta say it was difficult to tear myself away from the Kodak Theatre HD Player displays. It's hard to explain just how much this can do. Using the wireless remote control pointer that you can just point and click with, you can view pictures, video, podcasts, music and web fed content all through your Wi-Fi network. Whew!

Through the Kodak Theatre HD Player you have access to your pictures on your computer, USB Jump Drive, SC memory card, Kodak Gallery or Flickr. Watch or upload videos to YouTube. Listen to music from your personal collection or Internet Radio. You can even check the weather.

Your living room will never be the same.

I had a lot of fun trying out the new Kodak W820 and W1020 Wireless Digital Frames. As part of another great partnership, you can access pictures on Flickr. The frames continue to work with Kodak Gallery too.

There is also a connection to FrameChannel so you can view news, weather and more on your frame.

The W820 and W1020 also play videos and MP3s which make for cool slideshows.

You can navigate to all of these features using the Quick Touch Border with your fingertips. Pretty cool because it keeps the screen free of fingerprints.

All evening I heard people oohing and ahhing over these innovative new products. There was a lot to take in for one evening and I am sure there will be lots more posts about each of these new additions!

50 Million

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (MichaelDeLuca) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:14:09 EDT

Fifty million of almost anything is a whole lot. Fifty million inches is almost 800 miles - about the distance from Chicago to Dallas. Fifty million people is more than the population of Spain. And fifty million grains of sand? Around half a ton.

In a camera, fifty million pixels is a pretty impressive number, too. That's enough to see something the size of a small notebook computer in a field 1.5 miles wide. Or resolve every individual hair in a portrait of a model. Or take your professional photography business to a whole new level.

Yesterday, Kodak announced the new KODAK KAF-50100 Image Sensor - at fifty megapixels, it's the highest resolution available for professional photography. Today, the current state of the art is at 39 million pixels (with the KODAK KAF-39000 Image Sensor). But in this market, image is everything - so having the pixels and the performance you need is critical to capturing exactly the shot you want. So now, 50 is the new 39.

The new sensor design - the KODAK TRUESENSE 6.0 micron Full Frame CCD Technology Platform - includes several new features that make possible the performance available from the new sensor. Pixel size has been reduced by almost 30% (from 6.8 micron to 6.0 micron) to enable the increase in resolution. A new four-output architecture was designed to manage the quantity of data available from the sensor - so even though there's so much more data, the frame rate has actually gone up compared to the current 39 MPix device. A new red color pigment provides a subtle but important improvement to color accuracy and fidelity available from the sensor. And a new global reset capability allows the entire sensor to be cleared using a single pulse - shortening the amount of time the sensor needs to be ready to take the next shot, and helping to reduce power (by not needing to clock out the entire sensor before each shot).

Developing a new sensor - and especially one that uses an entirely new technology platform, like the one used here - isn't something that happens overnight. To develop this technology, there was a lot of hard work done to not only come up with the concepts for the new pixel designs and structures, but also to run these new designs through our manufacturing facility in Rochester, test the prototype sensors that are manufactured, understand what is going on, and then make modifications to both the underlying design as well as the manufacturing process to optimize the final result. A lot of work, but also a lot of fun (how often do you get to trick physics to let you do something everyone said wasn't even possible?).

Fifty million is a lot - in seconds, it's about how long Kodak spent developing this new technology. So our fifty million (in time) made possible a new fifty million (in pixels) for professional photographers. And who knows what fifty million that will produce in the future?

What's your fifty million?

Synthesizing Ed

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (JaneRyan) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:00:00 EDT

A while ago, I attended the farewell/retirement party for my friend Ed Covannon. You may remember Ed's posts in the blog-formerly-known-as-1000Nerds about China & Innovation. Held at a social establishment across the street from our previous work location (reduced to a pile of rubble, now cleaned up), the roast was emcee'd by another former co-worker who chooses to remain nameless. Let's call him "Mr. X" - and since we're all friends here, we'll just call him "X". Ed's farewell was a great multi-media occasion. This, of course, is what happens when a bunch of nerds gather together to pay homage to one of our own. (We'll spare you the haiku tributes, published internally under the moniker "Edless".)

Buildings 65 & 69 being imploded.
The referenced social establishment is to the right, just out of the picture
Photo credit to John Dyer.

So during "X's" portion of the roast, he divulged a bit of information that was heretofore unknown to most people. While I initially thought he was kidding, I soon realized that a fraud had been perpetrated on the 1000Nerds blog! The picture of Ed that we had so faithfully published with his posts was, in fact, FAKE - it was a synthesized image! Furthermore, "X" was the mastermind behind the creation!

Who knew? When I first received Ed's picture to set up his blog profile, I thought the picture was quite striking. And I did comment to him that he bore quite a resemblance to the guy from Schindler's List... you know, Liam Neeson. Well Ed thought that the jig was up at that point - that he had been found out - but that wasn't the case at all. Ed is a handsome man in his own right. And while it's true that (being the artistic, scientific, creative Lithuanian that he is) he went through a bit of a wild phase, you'd never know that now. I felt that the picture was a nice, artistic interpretation of the inner Ed - smoldering, introspective, ... a really great picture for his profile. For reference, the before/wild and after pictures below were part of "X's" presentation.

Ed does have that classic look, one that is universal enough that he is often compared to any number of Hollywood leading men - most notably Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. The peak of the Ed-look-alike phenomenon took place when the James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig hit the screens. What was fascinating was the number of people who thought that the new Bond looked just like Ed (not even the other way around).

Now look-alikes are not new. Wikipedia has a brief article on the matter. In fact, a quick Google search finds over 3 million websites covering look-alikes. I would have never thought that Sean Connery and the Ayatollah Khomeini resemble each other. But, if you don't believe me, check this out. (We should note here that people tend to tell "X" that his look-alike is Danny DeVito.)

So the looming question, at least in the mind of our intrepid "X," was this: Could a virtual Ed Covannon with look-alike provenance be synthesized through the magic of digital imaging? Further, could this virtual Ed be synthesized ONLY using image content from his alleged look-alikes? The question is not: Why do it? That's easy - because you can! The important question then becomes: How to do it.

Step 1: Finding a software package
Pictures can be processed using a simple morphing program to create linear combinations based on the input images, using them as orthogonal eigenfunctions (this part is for the Nerds). The program used for this exercise was Morph Studio. It's been discontinued, but a Google search on "morphing software" will show lots more candidates.

Step 2: Acquiring the input images
"X" googled Ed's look-alikes and searched for images of Ford, Neeson, and Craig having approximately the same pose. The images were then cropped and rendered in black white. These images would be processed with our simple morphing program. One certainly could see some of Ed in each of these pictures. But could the right combination of digital imagery DNA lead to Ed's likeness?

Step 3: Dialing in some representative combinations
Now for the fun part. The first linear combination was the 50-50 mix of Ford and Neeson shown below.

Perhaps there was a tad too much Ford in that recipe. Throwing in a pinch of Craig to kick it up a notch is shown below.

There was definitely some degree of convergence here.Too bad that there was less Craig than the others, what with the thrill of being James Bond and all. But a Han Solo and Qui-Gon Jinn with a pinch of Bond hybrid can't be all bad.

Step 4: Making the analytical choice
Several linear combinations were then synthesized and evaluated. The thought of non-linear combinations (i.e. including distortion) came to mind, but let's walk before we can run. This was quickly becoming too complex of an algorithm and frankly could consume a lot of time. So to cut to the chase, "X" recruited the consulting services of the ultimate authority - Ed's wife - figuring that, of all people, she would expedite convergence of this blossoming process. Donna's final selection is shown below. It wound up being a 55-30-15 mix of Neeson-Ford-Craig.

Voila! Lest you doubt the technique, here's a comparison to the real Ed.

So everyone was amused and "X's" endeavor in Digital Genetic Imagineering was fulfilled. Which brings us back to the beginning of the story. Unbeknownst to "X", Ed submitted the picture to the blog. Frankly, if you're going to synthesize your own picture, what better place to do it than on the Kodak Tech blog?And though I did comment on the picture, why would I doubt a standup guy like Ed?Actually, Ed had sworn "X" to secrecy since he was apparently intimidated by the potential "Wrath of Jane."

[This "Wrath of Jane" stuff makes me think this might be a good time to digress for a moment and make a statement once and for all... Engineering degree notwithstanding and in spite of what many of my co-workers have insinuated, I am NOT the model for the Alice character in Dilbert! I don't even know Scott Adams! And the next guy who says it may well enjoy my FIST OF DEATH!]

But getting back to the story... A few blog readers have made comments to Ed about the picture: "that must have been a few years ago", or "did anyone tell you that you look like a young Harrison Ford?" The overwhelming reaction however, was acceptance - people not caring, not being observant enough, or a subliminal validation of our Virtual Ed. We humans tend to trust the obvious. Perhaps the virtual image was closer to our mental image of Ed than the actual picture! By now Virtual Ed has become Ed's trademark, his brand. ; And now you know whole story...

Ah, the magic of digital imaging. So give it a try folks. Perhaps the important question is not "What's in your wallet?" but "Who's in your face?"

Note: Kudos to Ed Covannon and "Mr. X" for their contributions to this post.

Hurray for EasyShare Software v7.0: Tagging

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (MichelleFranchi) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:48:24 EDT

Part 2 of 3: Tagging

Welcome to part two of the series on the new features available in EasyShare software v7.0 for Windows! Yesterday, I told you about our new star rating feature. Today, I am going to talk about another new organizing tool, tagging!

A tag is a label used to describe your pictures. Tags are customized to your picture collection. You can create any tag you want, but most people use the names of family members, events, and holidays. Tags should be single words like "birthday," not phrases like "Matt's birthday party." Tags should be generic enough that they can be applied to pictures throughout multiple albums over many years.

Within the software, we have built many different ways to tag your pictures. I will show you some of the basic in the My Collection tab. First, you will need to create a new tag. You can do this by right-clicking on the word "tag" in the left hand menu. This will create a tag on the outer most level. I usually have a two-tiered tagging system. So my first tag is a broad category, like family. Then, I add tags for the names of my family members. To add a nested tag, simply right click on the category tag that you want the new tag to be under. For example, to add a new family member name, simply right-click on the word family.

Once you have created a new tag, you can simply drag and drop your pictures onto the tag!

You may have also noticed that we added a new button along the top of the My Collection tab, called "Tag Pictures." Clicking the icon brings up the Picture Properties menu. Here you can type in a new tag or simply check the boxes to tag a picture with an existing label.

The third way to tag a picture is in full-screen view. Simply type the name of the tag in box at the bottom of the screen, or right-click the image to pop-up the Picture Properties menu.

Well that's a quick lesson on tagging. Hopefully, you understand what a tag is and how to create one in EasyShare software v7.0! To download the software for free, visit www.kodak.com/go/easysharesw.

Come back again for the final part of this series. I promise it will be the most exciting entry yet because the final new feature is the coolest one of them all!

Motozine ZN5 Kodak Camera Phone

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (JenniferCisney) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:11:39 EDT

Today the Motozine ZN5, a candy bar-style with a 5 megapixel camera was launched. This is a mobile phone we developed with Motorola. The handset has Kodak Imaging Technology like Kodak digital cameras do. There is in-camera flash, a panoramic mode and Kodak Perfect Touch Technology.

Check out this Hands-on review of the Motozine ZN5 Kodak Camera Phone.

"Today Motorola and Kodak announced the result of a two-year partnership, and it's one of the best camera phones I've ever seen."

"Motorola and Kodak have done a very nice job creating a camera phone that's not only powerful but easy to use."

I can see my brain from here!

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (AustinGilman) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:33:18 EDT

Welcome to the first of what I can only imagine will be billions of nerdy bloggy posts written by yours truly. I've been reading through some blogs of other bloggers. Of the three employees in the Kodak directory with the last name Gilman, officially two-thirds of them are Kodak bloggers. There's me, of course. The other one-third is Paul. (We've never met, but I can only assume he is my long-lost quadrillionaire uncle who's been searching for a peasant relative for decades.)

My goal is simple: 100% Gilman bloggers!

I have met the other third of the Gilman trio. Happily, she is my lovely wife, who I can't seem to talk into blogging.

I'm writing today to discuss some of my infatuations. Firstly, I love a lot of things that I am incapable of spending the time to learn about and understand. This leads to frustration beyond measure, due to the "jack of all trades but master of none" life I seem to lead. By "jack of all trades" I mean I can muddle through some stuff but mostly guess my way around, hoping that it works out, like this blog! Ha!

Back to the point, you'll find, as you read through my various musings (I'm probably using that word wrong and presumptuously), I try hard to accomplish little. That came out weird. I'm not trying to accomplish little, I'm trying hard but getting little accomplished. Better?

I love numbers but I'm terrible at math. I love to draw but have no artistic talent.

I can kinda draw a tree or two!

I love to write, but words tumble through my fingertips in a nonsensical, difficult to comprehend, and run on-y sentence kinda way. Bringing Kodak's core into relevance, I love to take digital images but tend to leave them on the memory card for all of eternity.

There are a bunch of other things that'll show themselves to be of interest to me that'll come up in time, but I think the above will preface you for the trip you are about to take if you read anything I write.

Time is a huge factor in life as learning takes time. Learning is the root of life (maybe it's water? Air? I dunno, I'm just tossing darts here...) I'm a father of one and some change (brand

new shiny one is on the way, complete with new baby smell!) which gives me naptime to learn about all the things I'd like to. I find that a 2 hour nap can go by in about 15 minutes if I'm really figuring stuff out.

All this to say that learning for me, in the junk I'm interested in, comes in small chunks that are ineffective until 3 weeks have gone by - learning and relearning the same things. So, you'll have to be patient with my vast useless knowledge of a small part of a lot of stuff, and if that didn't make a lick of sense, you'll quickly get the idea of my writing style.

Size intrigues me. I love the size of all kinds of stuff. Giant stuff like the hotels in Las Vegas

are amazing, but more amazing when dwarfed by the Grand Canyon.

On the other side of that coin, I can't seem to stop taking pictures of stuff with the macro setting on my camera. Yesterday I took a picture of my eyeball. Really just the front of it, not the whole thing. And I'm sure this picture will be stolen and used for the iris recognition system I have on my front door; therefore, I've airbrushed it a bit to not get taken advantage of. (No really, I did).

Cameras are incredible. I can't look this clearly at my own face in the mirror, but here we sit noticing that I have a couple brown spots in there. I've never seen those before! If you look closer still at the reflection in my pupil you can see my hand trying to redirect the flash more on my face than over my head. A closer look still may show Kodak written on the front of the camera. I can't see that far due to temporary camera-flash-induced blindness, but it may be there! Too cool!

Speaking of small, I'm one of the people working to start production on a new Kodak Continuous Inkjet Printing project. We measure things in microns. For those who are unaware, a micron is really small. To be exact-er, it's one-one millionth of a meter or about one thousandth of a millimeter... Anyone seen a millimeter lately? No? That's because they are stupidly small to begin with. But oh wait, chop that millimeter into a thousand pieces, go ahead, I'll wait... My point? A micron is super tiny, which, in itself is pretty incredible, but it gets crazier. I've seen, when working on this stuff, measurements smaller than a micron. Let's take an example of like .952 microns... Written longhand it is 0.000000952 meters (or .000952 of a millimeter) or if I remember my decimal point counting lessons properly (and it's entirely possible that I don't) it would be 957blahblahblah millionths of a meter. Talk about making Vegas hotels look tiny? Yikes! I don't know about the rest of you, but these figures are so much smaller than anything I've thought possible! And we can measure and manipulate things at this level?! It makes ya wonder. (Well, I can't speak for you, but it makes me wonder!) Here's a little visual example:

Have a lovely evening, and I'll see you on the flip side!

Kodak Moments - A new view

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (TomHoehn) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:00:00 EDT

Today we unveiled a new look at a familiar phrase. We have all heard of "Kodak Moments", well take a look at this video to get a new perspective on them. I hope that some of the information you see in this 2-1/2 minute video surprises you. We thought it time to talk about some of technologies that are redefining the Kodak Moment. We are pretty proud of the things we are doing - let us know what you think.

=======> Watch it now! <========

More can also be seen at: inventions.kodak.com

Fly Me to the Moon

undisclosed@pluggedin.kodak.com (MichaelDeLuca) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:21:07 EDT

Jules Verne and H. G. Wells both wrote about it. The first science fiction movie ever made was made about it. Ralph yelled to Alice about it. Sinatra sang about it.

Finally, in 1969, we did it - we went to the moon. In total, astronauts landed on the moon on six separate occasions, the last time in 1972. And while we've talked about going back since then, there haven't been any real plans - until now.

NASA has begun work on a new program to safely return astronauts to the moon by 2020 - and then travel to Mars and beyond. The first mission in this program - the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - is scheduled to launch at the end of this year to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology that can be used on future missions.

Pretty cool. But wouldn't it be even better if there was a way to get involved yourself? Guess what - there is.

While you and I may not be able to make it to the moon in person, NASA is giving everyone the opportunity to send their name to the moon - as part of the LRO mission. It's actually pretty easy -

Go to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter web site before June 27, 2008 (that's the last day to enter a name)
Click on the "Send Your Name To The Moon" link on the right side of the page
Enter your name and click "Add Name" - then download your certificate
You're going to the moon!

According to NASA, all the names will be collected and entered into a database that will taken on board the LRO and will remain with it for the duration of the mission.

So head on over and get signed up, space cowboy - and know that you (or at least your name) will be on board when the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter blasts off. Just be sure to sign up before June 27, or it'll be too late.

BTW - you know those high-resolution images the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be taking of the lunar surface? Just guess whose image sensors they will be using in those cameras...