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What is the breakthrough here? It seems they just mated a security camera with a telescope lens assembly, both of which we've already had for decades.

ohaideredevs 7y ago
Serves to further understanding of surveillance capabilities. Kind of like this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4BQ1XzwDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4BQ1XzwDg (skip around)
umvi 7y ago
I thought it was pretty cool. Almost everything is legos now; you can't claim something isn't novel just because the components exist independently - if they haven't been used in that combination I say it's still novel. "What's the breakthrough here? It seems they just mated peanut butter with jelly between two slices of bread, all of which we've already had for decades"
- close04 7y ago
  > It’s got a fast autofocus that can focus in as quickly as 0.3 seconds, optical image stabilization, and an image processing engine that’s able to reduce the effects of fog and heat-haze. The camera also supports ISO levels of up to 819200 for filming at night This is the novelty. Basically improving on other camera systems by making the optics better. There are plenty of surveillance cameras that offer a similar set of features but perhaps with lower specs (slower AF, less effective processing algorithms, etc.). But I don't think they claimed to be a breakthrough invention, just an excellent first step into the field and a possible improvement over some of the competing offerings. This is more or less standard for border security applications, as an example [0]. There are many extreme long range surveillance systems that probably do a lot better... at potentially multiple hundreds of thousands of $ per unit. [0] https://www.kowa-lenses.com/en/applications/cctv-security/420/lmz1000ampdc-xfaf?c=33 https://www.kowa-lenses.com/en/applications/cctv-security/42...
- purerandomness 7y ago
  > Almost everything is legos now I strongly believe that this was always the case. There was never a 'breakthrough' invention.
  - brokenmachine 7y ago
    The wheel?
    - kuroikyu 7y ago
      Pretty much. After that it's all been wheels. Take the lenses, that's just a wheel with a piece of glass on each side, easy. The camera? More wheels of different sizes somewhat cleverly put together to capture light and store it - boring. It's almost depressing really, kids nowadays don't know how to make new things, just strap two things together with tape.
      - brokenmachine 7y ago
        The transistor is a wheel with differently-doped semiconductor areas?
    - purerandomness 7y ago
      But it's just a round, narrow stone, preferably with a hole in it. What's new about that?
zrth 7y ago
The image stabilization seems to be what makes this possible..
- m463 7y ago
  I don't think so, a security camera should be solidly mounted. Although maybe the folks buying them mount them on light poles or other non-steady bases.
Kurtz79 7y ago
"It seems they just mated a security camera with a telescope lens assembly, both of which we've already had for decades." You could say the same for tons of successful products, from instant noodles to ride hailing apps.
annachronistic 7y ago
As the world fractally unfolds, this idea — that there are obvious things that have already been done and nonobvious things that only very smart people can figure out – is going to stop making sense on the face of it. We are all very smart. But the universe is also very vast. We do not have all — not nearly all — of even the basic, bronze-age technologies that an alternate human civilization could have developed. Of course there are simple tricks left involving photosensitive semiconductors and modern optical engineering, is my point.

ohaideredevs 7y ago

Serves to further understanding of surveillance capabilities. Kind of like this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4BQ1XzwDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4BQ1XzwDg (skip around)

umvi 7y ago

I thought it was pretty cool. Almost everything is legos now; you can't claim something isn't novel just because the components exist independently - if they haven't been used in that combination I say it's still novel. "What's the breakthrough here? It seems they just mated peanut butter with jelly between two slices of bread, all of which we've already had for decades"

close04 7y ago
> It’s got a fast autofocus that can focus in as quickly as 0.3 seconds, optical image stabilization, and an image processing engine that’s able to reduce the effects of fog and heat-haze. The camera also supports ISO levels of up to 819200 for filming at night This is the novelty. Basically improving on other camera systems by making the optics better. There are plenty of surveillance cameras that offer a similar set of features but perhaps with lower specs (slower AF, less effective processing algorithms, etc.). But I don't think they claimed to be a breakthrough invention, just an excellent first step into the field and a possible improvement over some of the competing offerings. This is more or less standard for border security applications, as an example [0]. There are many extreme long range surveillance systems that probably do a lot better... at potentially multiple hundreds of thousands of $ per unit. [0] https://www.kowa-lenses.com/en/applications/cctv-security/420/lmz1000ampdc-xfaf?c=33 https://www.kowa-lenses.com/en/applications/cctv-security/42...
purerandomness 7y ago
> Almost everything is legos now I strongly believe that this was always the case. There was never a 'breakthrough' invention.
- brokenmachine 7y ago
  The wheel?
  - kuroikyu 7y ago
    Pretty much. After that it's all been wheels. Take the lenses, that's just a wheel with a piece of glass on each side, easy. The camera? More wheels of different sizes somewhat cleverly put together to capture light and store it - boring. It's almost depressing really, kids nowadays don't know how to make new things, just strap two things together with tape.
    - brokenmachine 7y ago
      The transistor is a wheel with differently-doped semiconductor areas?
  - purerandomness 7y ago
    But it's just a round, narrow stone, preferably with a hole in it. What's new about that?

zrth 7y ago

The image stabilization seems to be what makes this possible..

m463 7y ago
I don't think so, a security camera should be solidly mounted. Although maybe the folks buying them mount them on light poles or other non-steady bases.

Kurtz79 7y ago

"It seems they just mated a security camera with a telescope lens assembly, both of which we've already had for decades." You could say the same for tons of successful products, from instant noodles to ride hailing apps.

annachronistic 7y ago

As the world fractally unfolds, this idea — that there are obvious things that have already been done and nonobvious things that only very smart people can figure out – is going to stop making sense on the face of it. We are all very smart. But the universe is also very vast. We do not have all — not nearly all — of even the basic, bronze-age technologies that an alternate human civilization could have developed. Of course there are simple tricks left involving photosensitive semiconductors and modern optical engineering, is my point.