imaging

NEC Working on Retinal Imaging Language Translation Glasses

Gizmo of the Day, News / By Khalid Hosein / December 30, 2009

One day you may be able to wear glasses that translate other languages in real-time and display them onto the glasses’ lenses so you can read it, if NEC is successful.

Called a retinal imaging display, the glasses incorporate a microphone and displays language as expressions. Surprisingly, NEC plans to have a product out in 2010, although it’ll probably be prohibitively expensive for the general public.

I wonder though about how efficient this would be in a crowded room? We tend to underestimate how powerful our brains are at doing things like filtering noise and speech, even in a crowded room.

via Coated

#CES09: FLIR introduces Pedestrian Detection into auto Night Vision product

Automotive, CES / By Khalid Hosein / January 9, 2009

FLIR Systems showed off the latest version of their thermal imaging system for automobiles that now includes Pedestrian Detection.

First off all, the thermal imaging camera displays a clearer image at night than a human’s native vision can provide. Known as Night Vision and currently available in a select few BMW models, the image is shown in the vehicle’s in-dash monitor (which also duals as the info center).

The new addition to the system is Pedestrian Detection which if detects a heat source in the shape of a human, alerts the driver. Cool. Definitely something that needs to get embedded in all vehicles. Currently, the pricing is a bit too much ($2600 luxury add-on for some BMWs).

FLIR is working with another German vendor as well as a Japanese automaker for 2010 releases.