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As a computer vision researcher, I am impressed that Amazon has made the most computer-vision-centric mobile device seen to date. I have no idea if it will cat
by GrantS 12y ago
As a computer vision researcher, I am impressed that Amazon has made the most computer-vision-centric mobile device seen to date. I have no idea if it will catch on, but having a dedicated physical button for object recognition is huge insofar as it means they actually intend for people to be using this all the time, so they'll only be devoting more and more energy to recognizing everything in the world. Sure, it's mostly so you can then buy those things from Amazon, but I have to think there will be other useful applications given the provided recognition SDK.
I'm also curious if developers will have direct access to the four corner cameras on the front, and if the head-tracking it uses for 3D visual effects includes detailed eye/pupil-tracking -- if it doesn't yet, you can be sure that's planned for the future.
Edit: So the dedicated recognition button will already pull up wikipedia entries for recognized works of art. I wonder if they'll ever let third party developers hook into the hardware button so that third party plant-recognition, insect-recognition, action-figure recognition (etc) app results can be called up with that single button push in case Amazon doesn't recognize a purchasable item.
- ctdonath 12y ago6 cameras total. Sounding like a razor...
- smackfu 12y agoAlthough it seems like the only reason for four on the front is so that you can block two with your hand and still have two left for distance finding.
- RyJones 12y agoCorrect. The four front-facing cameras are low res, b&w, low framerate. ETA: I worked on this feature for lab126.
- GrantS 12y agoInteresting! B&W makes total sense. Low res also makes sense for head tracking but I guess that means pupil tracking is out of the question. Regarding low framerate, like lower than 30 fps? I would have thought continuous perspective shifting would require a framerate at or better than screen refresh rate to appear normal to the user.
- RyJones 12y agoYou can't see pupils really. Watch the videos they showed behind Bezos and they show the test apps with raw video.
- ctdonath 12y agoAny chance apps can use raw imagery from those cameras? can imagine some pretty nifty uses (say, true live 3d videophone: use cameras to construct 3d model from low res data, then map color image onto model, just have to transmit already-sent video feed plus modest model data).
- RyJones 12y agoThe API is open as of today, and I suspect you only get information on the events (looked [direction]; peeked [direction]), not raw data.