Walyou

OTTO Crank-Powered Camera Records GIFs with Filters

Posted: 16 May 2014 01:55 PM PDT

OTTO crank-powered GIF-recording camera 2

The correct spelling of the word GIF is still topic of dispute, but that didn’t stop some creative people from developing a crank-powered camera that captures animated images in this format.

The developers of Otto launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, where they hope to raise $60K in the next 29 days. Early birds had the chance to secure an OTTO camera for themselves by backing the project with $149, but since all those spots are gone, the only chance to get a GIF-recording crank-powered camera is by pledging $199.

As described by the manufacturers, “OTTO lets YOU decide how it takes pictures. Besides being the only camera that makes animated GIFs, OTTO's an image making machine that can transform into hundreds of different cameras with a quick tap. GIFs, time lapses, impromptu photo booths, or something brand new, OTTO is ready for adventure!

OTTO lets you take photos with a real camera, while still being able to easily share them to your favorite people. Photos taken with OTTO are viewed and shared from your smartphone.”

In terms of technical specs, OTTO is not exactly out of this world, but it does have some decent features: “Image capture is done though an f/2.0 35mm equivalent optical glass lens onto an Omnivision OV5647 5 megapixel 1/4-inch 1.4µm backside illuminated pixel CMOS sensor, capable of images up to 2592x1944px, HD video up to 1080p30 / 720p60, and VGA 640×480 at 90 frames per second.”

The most interesting feature of the Raspberry Pi-running camera is definitely the ability to add filters to the captured GIFs. As seen in the following image, you can opt between:

Shades
Map
D/Mesh
Stereo

Neither these are otherworldly, but you should keep in mind that OTTO is the first of its own, and that’s what matters the most. The camera is hackable, and the manufacturers decided that a lot more could be achieved if both the software and the hardware can be accessed by developers.

OTTO may look a lot like a disposable camera (and given its inconspicuous design, thieves might label it as unattractive), but it packs quite a lot of functionality. To be fair, the price could be lower, but considering the uniqueness of the device, we might turn a blind eye on this one.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about GIFTY, a GIF-recording camera that prints images as bitsy flip books, and the Peek-i camera accessory that turns the iPhone into a spy camera.

Google Buys Quest Visual, Hints at Improvement of Its Translate Service

Posted: 16 May 2014 01:20 PM PDT

The makers of Word Lens, the smartphone app that uses the camera to translate foreign text into a known language, are now part of Google, who means to improve its own translation service.

Up until smartphones became mainstream, getting around in a foreign country without speaking the language of the locals was quite difficult. Fortunately, mobile apps can now help people learn new languages on the go, and when traveling, they facilitate the translation of foreign words and expressions into a language that you’re comfortable with. Word Lens took this one step further by enabling smartphone users to translate whatever words they had in front of their camera, supposing a data connection was available.

Google and Quest Visual have collaborated in the past on the Word Lens app that was specifically tailored for the search giant’s smart glasses. These two companies may actually be planning to get real-time translation to other categories of devices besides smartphones. Assuming that more smartwatches will be equipped with cameras in the future, and not just Samsung’s Gear family, it would definitely be nice to have Word Lens’ functionality at your wrist.

Word Lens is currently offered for free, along with all the language packs that the company offered over the time, which means that Google might actually choose to discontinue this product in order to incorporate the technology into its own Translate service. Still, that’s not really a certainty. After all, Google also bought the makers of the Timely app a while ago and made the app free in the Play Store, but didn’t discontinue it. To be fair, they didn’t bring any improvements, either, so the reasons behind that acquisition are anyone’s guess.

As always, the ones to benefit the most from Google’s acquisition of Quest Visual are the users of the Word Lens app, and above all, of the Translate app, which will definitely be updated to include Word Lens’ functionality in the not so distant future.

Below is the promo video that Quest Visual made for their Word Lens app at the time of the launch:

Once wearables become mainstream, translation services will change the way people interact, and Google Translate will be a prime example of that, with its newly gained capabilities.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the revamp of Google Translate for Android from two years ago, and the VizLingo service that translates video to text acoustically.