News (IFA) Samsung Galaxy Camera is powered by Android

Most smartphones feature cameras. But the Samsung Galaxy Camera is something else — it’s first and foremost a camera with a high quality lens. It just happens to have the elements of a decent smartphone or media player including a 4.8 inch touchscreen LCD and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system.

The Galaxy Camera doesn’t just let you snap photos. You can also edit them on the device and upload them to Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else using a WiFi, 3G, or 4G connection.

You can’t make phone calls with the camera, but if you use the mobile broadband features, you can instantly post your photos online wherever you have a wireless signal.

Samsung also bakes in a feature that lets you automatically backup photos to the cloud or sync them across other devices that use Samsung AllShare including a Galaxy S III smartphone or Galaxy Note smartphone.

The camera has a 16 megapixel sensor and a 21x zoom lens.

While this is a camera, the spec-list reads like a data sheet for a smartphone. The Galaxy Camera features a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of built-in storage, and a 1650mAh battery. There’s also a microSD card for extra storage.

It features support for the Google Play Store, which provides access to thousands of Android apps, games, and other digital content.

This isn’t the first Android-powered camera we’ve seen. Nikon recently introduced the Coolpix S800c with Android. But Samsung isn’t just a camera maker slapping Android onto a point-and-shoot. The company is one of the top makers of Android smartphones, makes its own mobile processors, and has also been selling cameras for a while.

via PocketNow and Laptop Magazine

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Sony trademarks ‘Exmor RS’ – new camera sensor on the way?

Sony Corporation recently trademarked “Exmor RS” at both the United States (USPTO) and European (OHIM) patent offices. Sony has used its current Exmor R camera sensor in a range of devices including cameras, camcorders and of course Xperia smartphones. It looks like this new version will also be applied across a variety of technology, judging by the Goods & Services description within the trademark.

We thought Sony may be branding their new stacked CMOS sensors as Exmor RS, but there hasn’t been any evidence of this thus far so this is likely to be an entirely new sensor. We look forward to see what improvements it brings over the current back-illuminated Exmor R that is superb for low-light imaging.

Thanks Phamanhtuan207!

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NEWS:New OmniVision camera sensor shoots 16MP stills, 4K video

If you haven't heard of OmniVision, you should know make some pretty good camera sensors (the one in the iPhone 4, for example). Today they outed the OV16820, a 16MP sensor intended for use in digital cameras and the high-end smartphones

The sensor measures 1/2.3" and uses OmniVision's OmniBSI-2 technology with 1.34 micro pixel pitch. It's capable of outputting 16MP (4608 x 3456) photos at 30fps in burst mode and 4K2K (3840 x 2160, four times the resolution of 1080p) video at 60fps.

The new OmniVision sensor also supports on-chip pixel binning (2x2 and 3x3) and resampling. Pixel binning is a popular way to improve quality when the needed resolution is lower than the sensor resolution (so, it will work for 1080p and 720p, videos but not 4K2K).

All this sounds pretty awesome - burst shot mode is becoming more important (as the HTC One phones and Samsung Galaxy S III will tell you) - and 16MP cameraphones are already on the market (HTC Titan II).

As for the 4K2K video, it's a nice dream but we don't think we'll see it in a phone soon - processing four times as many pixels as FullHD (especially at 60fps) is too much burden even for the current smartphone chipsets.

Source

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Sony announces new 8MP and 13MP image sensors for smartphones

Sony has announced that it has developed the next-generation of back-illuminated camera sensors destined for smartphones. The CMOS image sensor uses a new stacked structure that delivers improved camera quality in a smaller chip size. Other features of the new image chip include faster speeds and lower power consumption.

The sensors also have been developed with Sony’s “RGBW Coding” function, important for low-light photography, and the proprietary “HDR (High Dynamic Range) Movie” function that can achieve dynamic colours even when taking pictures against bright light. See some demos of these functions below.

Samples of the new CMOS image sensor will start shipping from March 2012. First up will be the 1/4″ 8MP sensor that will come equipped with built-in signal processing functionality. In June, Sony will ship the 1/3.06″ 13MP sensor that will come with both RGBW Coding and HDR Movie functions. Then in August, Sony will sample the 1/4″ 8MP sensor, which will also support RGBW Coding and HDR Movie functions. We wouldn’t expect any smartphones using these new chips until the end of the year at the earliest.

For more details about how these new stacked CMOS chips differ from conventional sensors click hereand here.

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