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New Emotional Technology in KODAK Picture Kiosks creates opportunity to tap into trillions of images
New KODAK Picture Kiosk Software v4.0 Unlocks Images from Consumer Video, Social Networks and More
The Eastman Kodak Company introduced a series of powerful new features and enhancements to its KODAK Picture Kiosk software, including a number of industry firsts. The new features are designed to inspire consumers to create something truly memorable with their most important photos easily and in minutes, through highly-profitable premium at-retail photo products. Utilizing Kodak’s proprietary materials and digital image science, these unique-to-Kodak features are compatible with KODAK Picture Kiosk G4 series – the majority of the KODAK Kiosk fleet.
Hot on the heels of the award winning KODAK SLICE Touchscreen Camera and KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera announced at CES, KODAK Picture Kiosk Software v4.0 now debuts Kodak’s Video Snapshots, a first-of-its-kind video-to-still capture application at retail that allows consumers to easily select individual pictures of that “perfect moment” from video clips shot with digital still and point-and-shoot digital video cameras. Other industry firsts include Kodak’s Pet Eye Retouch, Kodak’s Facial Retouch and true one-touch premium products. In addition, onboard workflow enhancements in KODAK Picture Kiosk Software v4.0 make it faster and easier than ever to create popular premium products such as photo enlargements and collages, as well as KODAK Picture CDs, and Photo Books, making this Kodak’s most powerful software release for its kiosk fleet – ever.
“Our new KODAK Picture Kiosk software is the best we’ve introduced. It uses our Emotional Technology Initiative, designed specifically to help consumers tell their life stories quickly and easily,” said Nicoletta Zongrone, General Manager Retail Systems Solutions and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. “We’ve had a number of market firsts since Kodak invented the photo kiosk category in 1993, and we’ve now created what we believe is the most satisfying customer experience to date, along with introducing proprietary features, that help our retail partners create vibrant, reliable and highly profitable photo retail destinations.”
New features of KODAK Picture Kiosk Software v4.0 solve real problems for consumers and retailers:
– Solving the problem of capturing that special individual moment locked away in a video, Kodak’s Video Snapshots feature lets consumers review and select individual frames from their video files, convert them into still images, and then use them to create prints, collages, greeting cards, photo books and calendars, or store them on a CD making them easier to share and relive. Consistent with Kodak’s core competency of delivering breakthrough, easy-to-use consumer experiences, the simple and elegant user interface is quick, easy and fun. Kodak’s Video Snapshots will support video formats of top brand digital still and point-and- shoot digital video cameras, including the newest HD models. With consumers in the US alone shooting more than 4 trillion video frames annually, this presents an enormous opportunity for retailers.(1)
– With 71 million pet households in the US alone(2), pets rank in the top four of all captured images.(3) Kodak’s Pet Eye Retouch allows these consumers to fix the very common and problematic pet eye glare caused by flash photography of their furry companions. Consumer research shows that 65 percent of consumers were likely to use this feature, and remarkably, 28 percent would be willing to change where they print to get it. (3)
– Helping people look their best, Kodak’s market-proven Facial Retouch Feature, at the touch of one button smoothes wrinkles, diminishes and/or erases blemishes and improves skin tone for more perfect photo keepsakes. This technology was successfully tested and launched with major European retailers and is now available to all Kodak retail partners around the globe.
– The new Software v4.0 also gives consumers using the KODAK Picture Kiosk the ability to access the photos they have stored or shared on the KODAK Gallery, Facebook® and Picasa(TM) Web Albums, and easily use them to create photo keepsakes in minutes right in the store. With more than 475M active consumers in 180 countries and more than three billion photos uploaded each month to these sites, the software offers retailers a huge opportunity to market their unique in-store services to these users.(4)
– Designed to help consumers become aware of the powerful new sharing solutions, and retailers to increase market basket opportunity, the new software now offers a complete suite of merchandising tools. Fresh, lively welcome screen messaging offers ideas for new projects right from the start, and the intelligent one-touch premium upsell feature creates animated product suggestions using the consumer’s own images, allowing her to purchase an additional product instantly with the touch of one button.
In addition to exciting new features, KODAK Picture Kiosk Software v4.0 takes work out for the consumer. Consistent with Kodak’s focus on delivering a superior consumer experience in store, the new software requires fewer consumer touches, writes KODAK Picture CDs up to 33 percent faster, and creates KODAK Photo Books faster and more easily than with previous generation solutions. This translates into less queuing, improved customer satisfaction and more profit potential per minute.
“With all these amazing new features and powerful upsells, the KODAK Picture Kiosk is the hardest working employee in the store – always helping and always selling,” said Zongrone. “In the end, this category is not about bits, bytes and pages, it’s about putting technology to work to solve real problems and create opportunities, so that consumers and retailers get what they need. We call it ‘Emotional Technology.’ We’re very proud of our new software and we’re working with our retailer partners around the globe to roll it out as we speak.”
KODAK Picture Kiosk Software v4.0 will begin shipping in the 2nd quarter of 2010. . For more information on this and other exciting solutions come visit the world’s leader in the photo kiosk industry at PMA 2010 – booth 3100, Anaheim Convention Center, California, from February 21-23 2010.
Apple releases Aperture 3
New Features Include Faces, Places & Brushes
Apple introduced Aperture 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto® ‘09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.
“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets.”
“Aperture 3 gets it right,” said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. “The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they’re so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible.”
“I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it’s now an unbelievable imaging tool as well,” said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. “I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3.”
Aperture 3 allows you to organize large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organize your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organization process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven’t yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone® photos.
The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.
Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes® to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch®. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.
Pricing & Availability
Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $99 (US). A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS® X Snow Leopard® on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors.
Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.
Lightspeed releases the New DepthQ family of Stereoscopic HD Video Software
Lightspeed Design, Inc. announces the release of its new DepthQ(R) family of stereoscopic software for state-of-the-art capture and playback of HD 3D media. DepthQ(R) HD 3D software has been successfully serving hundreds of professional clients in corporate, entertainment, medical and industrial applications since 2002. That software has now evolved into the new DepthQ(R) family of stereoscopic software — DepthQ(R)Capture(TM) and DepthQ(R)Player(TM).
What makes this product the best of its kind? Simply that DepthQ(R) is the only 3D software package capable of low-latency (66ms) real-time monitoring with simultaneous capture, highly efficient GPU image processing and smooth, high-resolution media playback. Lightspeed’s experience in 3D display technology and filmmaking, combined with their deep understanding of stereography and image processing, led them to develop their own toolsets to capture, process, configure, and playback HD 3D imagery with greater flexibility, efficiency, and accuracy. Lightspeed’s unparalleled features set DepthQ(R)Capture(TM) and DepthQ(R)Player(TM) far above the competition.
DepthQ(R)Capture(TM)
DepthQ(R)Capture(TM) is a powerful software solution for the precise capture, recording and monitoring of stereo 3D video from two simultaneous camera inputs (Analog, HD-SDI, HDMI, FireWire or USB) at dual HD resolution. Features include low-latency, real-time monitoring, a camera alignment aid and visual overlays to assist in optimizing your 3D effects for various target playback screens.
DepthQ(R)Player(TM) captures your two independent camera video sources, concatenates them together as an above/below image to preserve sync, processes the result — applying any scaling and compression required — and then serves the final stereo data as a single data stream to any 3D (or 2D) monitoring device at the required resolution, frame rate, and encoding standard for that display.
DepthQ(R)Player(TM)
DepthQ(R)Player(TM) is a feature-packed software solution for the high-quality playback of stereo 3D movies from a standard PC. Easy to use and designed from the ground up as a professional product, DepthQ(R)Player(TM) combines efficient code architecture and superior throughput for high-bandwidth playback of either locally stored or URL-accessible stereoscopic movies, as well as 3D streaming IP video (MPEG2-TS RTP/UDP).
DepthQ(R)Player(TM) delivers the most comfortable-to-view stereo 3D experience possible, and allows cost-effective viewing of high-resolution stereoscopic media in a wide variety of environments — from remote 3D viewing stations, operating rooms and conference rooms to 3D cinemas, museum exhibits, portable theaters, motion simulators, corporate events and trade shows.
Features include:
- Flicker-free 120 Hz stereoscopic 3D video
- Input Formats – above/below, side-by-side, interlaced and more
- Output Formats – Page-flip, DLP checkerboard, dual output, interlace and more
- DepthQ(R) Alignment (real-time X-Y stereoscopic parallax adjustments)
- Time Dependent Event Editor (IN/OUT points, Parallax changes)
- Time Code Capability
- DMX-512 Control of External Devices
- Cg GPU Image Processing (cornerstone, edge sharpening, contrast, brightness, etc.)
- Depth Reference Marks
DepthQ(R)Player(TM) software uses Microsoft Direct Show infrastructure working with codecs like Windows Media Player, MJPEG, MPEG-2, and H.264 and is compatible with NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision and NVIDIA Quadro.
DepthQ(R)Player(TM) is available in three configurations: Lite, a free-to-download evaluation version incorporating a subtle watermark, with restricted playlength and functionality; Standard, a licensed commercial version at 720P resolution per eye; and Pro, a licensed professional version at full 1080P resolution per eye.
Download DepthQ(R)Player(TM) Lite, test drive it and tell us what you think. Go to http://www.depthq.com/player.html.
For more information, go to http://www.depthq.com/software.html.
Source: Lightspeed Design, Inc.
Microsoft Photosynth Integrates Into Virtual Earth, Marking Commercial Availability of the 3-D Photo Technology
NASA and VisitBrighton put new Photosynth release to work in Virtual Earth and outer space.
Microsoft Corp. announced updates to its Photosynth technology that enable commercial use through integration with Microsoft Virtual Earth. The Photosynth integration into Virtual Earth signifies the first release designed to enable businesses to use Photosynth in commercial applications.
Photosynth software analyzes digital photographs and generates a 3-D model by “stitching” the photos together. These models, or “synths,” can now be viewed using Silverlight technology across multiple platforms. Virtual Earth brings together features, functionality and content that help consumers, businesses, citizens and governments bring location to life. It helps businesses and governments share location-based information, build better connections with consumers or citizens, and helps organizations make better operational decisions. With the integration of Photosynth into Virtual Earth customers will be able to create detailed 3-D views of anything from places to products and from hotels to homes.
“The integration of Microsoft Photosynth into Virtual Earth marks an important step in enabling businesses to use Photosynth in a relevant, customer-friendly way,” said Jeff Kelisky, general manager, Mapping and Local Search at Microsoft. “With the integrated capabilities of Photosynth and recently added Silverlight API, our Virtual Earth partners have great tools for creating, sharing, viewing and embedding synths across multiple platforms, and building engaging experiences.”
The commercial update includes new controls that enable users to decide where and how they share synths by making synths public or unlisted on http://www.photosynth.net/. This allows organizations to manage the availability and access to synths, giving greater control over the visual representation of their places and premises. Synths can now include user-defined highlights to showcase key images and greatly improve navigation.
Customers and partners are already seeing the benefits of Photosynth and Virtual Earth with examples now live from organizations and businesses as diverse as NASA and VisitBrighton in the United Kingdom.
“This stunning collection of photographs using Microsoft Photosynth interactive 3-D imaging technology provides people around the world with an exciting new way to explore the International Space Station and learn about NASA’s upcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission,” said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “This collaboration with Microsoft offers the public the opportunity to participate in future exploration using this innovative technology.”
Other examples of customers include VisitBrighton, a tourism business in the U.K., facilitated by New Mind Internet Consultancy Ltd., a U.K. partner that has embraced the technology. VisitBrighton recognized the potential of Photosynth both to businesses and visitors to Brighton. Together VisitBrighton and New Mind have been able to offer potential visitors detailed visual information about attractions to encourage people to visit the city. For businesses there is the opportunity to show specific assets to potential visitors, which can put them one step ahead of their competitors.
Potential applications of the new offering may include these:
- Real estate. Showing homebuyers the inside and outside of properties with interactive views
- Tourism and hospitality. Giving an early 3-D and interactive view of hotels, resorts or cities
- Retail. Enabling customers to see the insides of branches and stores, and browse products in great detail
- Media and entertainment. Allowing media companies to create and share visual projects in a controlled environment, and build compelling campaigns and programs with new media
- Public sector. Giving citizens rich detail on public services, buildings, land use and more
- Internal business use. Using unlisted synths for location-based information, such as insurance risk assessment and claim processing
The video that accompanies today’s announcement and customer showcases of Photosynth and Virtual Earth can be viewed at the Virtual Earth Web site.
Microsoft Virtual Earth
The Virtual Earth platform is Microsoft’s next-generation integrated set of powerful online mapping and search services that offer a variety of capabilities, including unique bird’s-eye view,* three-dimensional imagery, and aerial and satellite imagery. The Virtual Earth platform also powers a variety of consumer, enterprise and government applications that enable people to discover and explore a specific location. Virtual Earth powers Live Search Maps, Microsoft’s online local search and mapping Web site. More information about the Virtual Earth platform is available at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/default.mspx.
* Bird’s eye view and 3-D view are available in many metropolitan areas.
Source: Microsoft Corp.
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