Well, did you know that your iPhone can take Panorama photos? That’s because the feature is already there, just hidden, to be eventually revealed in the next version, I guess. The folks at 360Cities have figured out how Apple hides these future features and reveal in this video how to activate the Panorama mode now. It looks more complicatd than it really is — and unlocks a cool feature.

via techcrunch

Microscope Makeover: An iPhone microscope. It consists of a 1-millimeter-diameter ball lens embedded in a rubber sheet and taped over the smartphone's camera. (Photo: Z. J. Smith, K. Chu, A. R. Espenson, M. Rahimzadeh, A. Gryshuk, M. Molinaro, D. M. Dwyre, S. Lane, D. Matthews, S. Wachsmann-Hogiu)

Researchers Transform iPhone into High-quality Medical Imaging Device

Advanced, life-saving capabilities become a simple add-on to handheld technology you already use

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In a feat of technology tweaking that would rival MacGyver, a team of researchers from the University of California, Davis has transformed everyday iPhones into medical-quality imaging and chemical detection devices. With materials that cost about as much as a typical app, the decked-out smartphones are able to use their heightened senses to perform detailed microscopy and spectroscopy. The team will present their findings at the Optical Society’s (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2011, taking place in San Jose, Calif. Oct. 16-20.

The enhanced iPhones could help doctors and nurses diagnose blood diseases in developing nations where many hospitals and rural clinics have limited or no access to laboratory equipment. In addition to bringing new sensing capabilities where they are needed most, the modified phones are also able transmit the real-time data to colleagues around the globe for further analysis and diagnosis.

“Field workers could put a blood sample on a slide, take a picture, and send it to specialists to analyze,” says Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu, a physicist with UC Davis’ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Center for Biophotonics, Science and Technology, and lead author of the research to be presented at FiO.

Microscope Makeover
The group is not the first to build a smartphone microscope. “But we thought we could make something simpler and less expensive,” Wachsmann-Hogiu says.

His first attempt took simplicity too far. “We started with a drop of water on the camera’s lens,” he says. “The water formed a meniscus, and its curved surface acted like a magnifying lens. It worked fine, but the water evaporated too fast.”

Then the team turned to ball lenses. These are finely ground glass spheres that act as low-powered magnifying glasses. The team used a 1-millimeter-diameter ball lens that costs $30-40 USD in their prototype, but mass-produced lenses could be substituted to reduce the price.

To build the microscope’s lens, Kaiqin Chu, a post-doctoral researcher in optics, inserted a ball lens into a hole in a rubber sheet, then simply taped the sheet over the smartphone’s camera.

At 5x magnification, the ball lens is no more powerful than a child’s magnifying glass. Yet when paired with the camera of a smartphone, the microscope could resolve features on the order of 1.5 microns, small enough to identify different types of blood cells.

There are two reasons why such low magnification produces such high-resolution images. First, ball lenses excel at gathering light, which determines resolution. Second, the camera’s semiconductor sensor consists of millions of light-capturing cells. Each cell is only about 1.7 microns across. This is small enough to capture precisely the tiny high-resolution image that comes through the ball lens.

Ball lenses pose some unique problems. The curvature of their sphere bends light as it enters the ball, distorting the image, except for a very small spot in the center. The researchers used digital image processing software to correct for this distortion. They also used the software to stitch together overlapping photos of the tiny in-focus areas into a single image large enough for analysis.

Even though smartphone micrographs are not as sharp as those from laboratory microscopes, they are able to reveal important medical information, such as the reduced number and increased variation of cells in iron deficiency anemia, and the banana-shaped red blood cells characteristic of sickle cell anemia.

Wachsmann-Hogiu’s team is working with UC Davis Medical Center to validate the device and determine how to use it in the field. They may also add features, such as larger lenses to diagnose skin diseases and software to count and classify blood cells automatically in order to provide instant feedback and perhaps recognize a wider range of diseases.

Simple Spectrometer
When researchers need additional diagnostic tools, the microscope could be swapped for a simple spectrometer that also uses light collected by the iPhone’s camera.

Spectrometers smear out light from an object, separating it into its composite wavelengths in much the way a prism breaks up white light in the familiar colors of the rainbow. Since atoms and molecules absorb very specific wavelengths when exposed to light, it is possible to tease out the chemical signature of materials by studying their spectra.

Like the microscope, the iPhone’s spectrometer takes advantage of smartphone imaging capabilities. “We had worked with spectrometers for diagnostics, and didn’t think it would be too far a stretch,” Wachsmann-Hogiu says.

The spectrometer that the researchers added to the iPhone is easy to build. It starts with a short plastic tube covered at both ends with black electrical tape. Narrow slits cut into the tape allow only roughly parallel beams of light from the sample to enter and exit the tube. It is this grating that smears, or spreads, the light into a spectrum of colors that scientists can use like a fingerprint to identify various molecules.

“If you didn’t have the slits, light would come in from all different angles and you could never separate it properly,” explains Zachary Smith, an optics post-doctoral researcher in the lab.

Though the spectrometer is still in its early stages, the researchers believe it could measure the amount of oxygen in the blood and help diagnose chemical markers of disease.

Because smartphone instruments are powerful and cheap, Wachsmann-Hogiu believes schools could use them to enrich science classes. Spectrometers could help illustrate lessons about light and energy. Microscopes could unveil an invisible world of sugar crystals, pollen grains, and microscopic organisms.

By intelligently exploiting smartphone features, Wachsmann-Hogiu’s group promises to both save lives and illuminate science.

The presentation, “Microscopy and Spectroscopy on a Cell Phone,” by Kaiqin Chu, Zachary J. Smith, Alyssa R. Espenson, Denis Dwyre, Stephen Lane, Dennis Matthews, and Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu of the Center for Biophotonics, University of California, Davis, Medical Center, Sacramento, Calif. will take place Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 12 p.m. at the Fairmont San Jose Hotel.

EDITOR’S NOTE: High-resolution images of the iPhone and image samples taken with the device are available upon request. Please contact Angela Stark, astark@osa.org.

About the Meeting
Frontiers in Optics 2011 is OSA’s 95th Annual Meeting and is being held together with Laser Science XXVII, the annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Laser Science (DLS). The two meetings unite the OSA and APS communities for five days of quality, cutting-edge presentations, fascinating invited speakers and a variety of special events spanning a broad range of topics in physics, biology and chemistry. FiO 2011 will also offer a number of Short Courses designed to increase participants’ knowledge of a specific subject while offering the experience of insightful teachers. An exhibit floor featuring leading optics companies will further enhance the meeting.

Useful Links:

• Meeting home page
• Conference program
• Searchable abstracts

NOTE: A Press Room for credentialed press and analysts will be located at FiO in the Fairmont San Jose Hotel, Sunday through Thursday, Oct. 16-20. Those interested in obtaining a press badge for FiO should contact OSA’s Angela Stark at +1 202.416.1443 or astark@osa.org.

About OSA
Uniting more than 130,000 professionals from 175 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.

Apple "Nikon S3 template" for the iPhone transparent case

Made you look, eh?

No, Apple did not get into the digital camera business and Nikon did not get into the mobile phone business. Rather, a couple of talented fellows have taken Steve Jobs up on his comparison of the iPhone 4 to the legendary Leica camera. BeyondtheTech over at MacRumors:Forums designed a Leica template and NikonJin designed a Nikon S2 template and a Nikon S3 template. I must say I especially like the retro rangefinder look, don’t you?

Download the Leica template at: MacRumors:Forums.

Download the Nikon templates at: NikonJin.

source petapixel

Many comments on the shoot pointed out the fallacy of trying to prove the point by using expensive lighting.

Joshua Schnell of Macgasm rebuted the piece by correctly pointing out that “You can get amazing photos out of any piece-of-crap camera if you spend a ton of cash on lighting your subjects.”

Lee Morris responded by restating the aim of the video: “So before I say anything else let me start by saying; I created this video to simply show that you should not be limited by your camera. Obviously there was a lot that went into this shoot including a professional model, hair and makeup, a studio, lighting, and a retoucher. We may create another video in the future where we shoot with only natural light but this video is simply about the camera. There are so many photographers who are obsessed with noise, sharpness, color, dynamic range, megapixels, chromatic aberration, moire, distortion, etc. So many photographers get wrapped up in the technical side that they forget how to take compelling images. This video is for them.”

Fstoppers did a fantastic job with their iPhone 3G fashion shoot. We understand where they are coming from: their premise that consumers should not be so engrossed with noise, CA, equipment, etc. is correct. It’s just that their video using expensive lighting equipment and perfect studio lighting may have proved the very opposite.

Therein lies the problem we see too often on the Web: how easy it is to do something with a piece of crap. That equipment does not matter. That you should not be so concerned with noise, CA, etc. All true, mind you, yet all so misleading — depending on how you word your article title and actual content.

See, it’s one thing to say that “A good photographer can take good pictures with any camera.” and quite another to say that “You don’t need good equipment to take good pictures.” Though both statements are true, they can also be misleading to consumers trying to find a good digital camera for their family pictures. Certainly if they went and bought the wrong camera, they will not be able to take good pictures, especially low-light pictures, which seems to be the holy grail of picture-taking for most point-and-shoot photographers.

With a good camera, consumers should stop being so engrossed with their equipment and start learning about lighting, composition, etc. In other words, concentrate into becoming a better photographer. I believe that is what Lee Morris was trying to get across.

But, if the camera did not matter at all, then why doesn’t Lee [or the other photographers who keep espousing this view] use an iPhone [or an Olympus DSLR, which he so flagrantly and unfairly dissed in the opening minutes of his video], from now on for all his shoots? Obviously, that ain’t gonna happen. Yes, you still want to use the right equipment for the job.

Similarly, taking test shots in perfect studio lighting can also be deceptive. Your camera will never be in such an ideal lighting situation so the test does not prove anything, period. Many test reviews do just that: shoot ISO tests in a studio setting with perfect lighting or even take their high ISO tests in bright daylight. No one in the field takes high ISO pictures in bright light. To be relevant, any test should reproduce as close as possible the actual environment most people will be taking pictures in. In other words, high ISO tests should always be performed in a low-light, preferably standard room lighting, situation.

Great video. May have simply proved that the iPhone can take great pictures and video in a perfectly lighted studio setting. In real life? Still not bad from what we have seen around the Web, just not great.

So, what is it? Does the camera matter? You’ll read both sides, and sometimes heated, exchanges on this subject. The truth, as is often the case, lies somewhat in the middle.

Does the camera matter?

1. No: a good photographer can take good pictures with any camera.
2. No: a crappy camera [pardon the language] can take good pictures if the lighting just happens to be perfect, whether in a studio or in the field.
3. Yes: you will not be able to take good low-light pictures with most point-and-shoot cameras (including the cameras on mobile phones, no matter how many megapixels they sport).
4. No, not if you have a good camera: the improvement should come from you becoming a better photographer. This is the point that most who espouse “the camera doesn’t matter” mantra is trying to make. With a good camera, stop nit picking on the faults [since no camera is perfect] and concentrate on learning and becoming a better photographer, so you can do #1.
5. Yes: that is why professional photographers buy the best.

Apple iPhone

Professional photographers are quickly turning the iPhone into standard camera equipment…

[ Read the article at: American Photo ]

Apple iPhone

Which camera phone is used most to update Flickr?

1. Apple iPhone
   June 4, 2009: 24,563 images uploaded, 3,887 users
   September 24, 2009: 31,814 images uploaded, 5,251 users
2. Nokia N95
3. BlackBerry Storm 9530
4. BlackBerry Curve 8330
5. Nokia E71

Most popular point-and-shoot camera used to update Flickr:

• Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS
  22.1 photos or videos uploaded per user

[ via PMA Foresight ]

Apple iPhone

Rob Galbraith has a very interesting article for all of you who take pictures using an iPhone (OS 3.0 and 1GB or higher data plan). He has published an illustrated step-by-step instruction guide on how to set up the iPhone OS 3.0′s USB/Bluetooth Internet Tethering feature so you can transmit pictures from the field by sharing its always-on mobile Internet connection with your laptop.

Apple iPhone

Rumors, rumors, rumors. Will the new iPhone do Video, à-la Kodak ZX1, the pocket HD video camcorder that is getting rave reviews for top fun factor? Just imagine if it did. Other rumors say that it is the new iPod Touch that will get the 5M video capability to re-invigorate sagging sales. And then there is the iTablet rumor which is probably giving Sony Reader Digital Book and Amazon Kindle designers sleepless nights.

Related links:

- Photo.Blorge
- Computerworld
- Gizmodo
- InformationWeek
- Appleinsider