Before continuing to read my article I want to provide you with a bigger picture of how far the digital camera technology has gone. The term is not referring only at those handheld devices we use to take pictures and record short videos, but also at those built into cell phones, cars, web cameras and even astronomical devices such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

One physical characteristic that differentiates them from the analog photo cameras is the LCD display you can watch the landscape on, before taking the picture, or on which you can select those photos you want to delete at a later time.
Digitizing refers at the conversion of analog information consisting of fluctuating waves, into 1 and 0 bits, and if analog cameras worked based on chemical and mechanical processes, digital models do it electronically, recording images on light-sensitive sensors.

First Camera Invented



First concept design, first prototype or first commercial digital camera? Let’s see!
The first concept came from Eugene F. Lally who demonstrated how to digitize signals from an array of discrete sensor elements, using a mosaic photo sensor. This project was destined for astronauts and should have provided onboard navigation data during missions in space. This system should have recorded still pictures of space objects together with stadiametric information.

While this happened in 1961, it took 11 years more for a camera patent without film to be published. In 1972, Willis Adcock came out with this new design, but no one has heard about it since then.
3 years later, in 1975, Kodak Eastman’s engineer Steven Sasson, tried to build a digital camera working with a CCD sensor provided by Fairchild Semiconductor.

The patent describes a 3.6Kg weight for a camera that could record black and white images on a cassette tape, at a resolution of 0.01MP, with 23 seconds capturing time. Again, it was an innovative idea that didn’t go into mass production, remaining at the prototype level.
The first camera invented, and here I am referring at the first model capable to record as a computerized file, came out in 1988 and was introduced by Fuji, under the name Fuji DS-1P. It featured 16MB SDRAM memory card made by Toshiba, a battery, 400K CCD, 16 MM f/5.6 fixed focus, and 1/60 to 1/2000 second shutter.



In 1990 people had the chance to buy the first commercially available model, 1990 Dycam Model 1 aka Logitech Fotoman, which had a CCD sensor, storage space and PC connectivity.
During the next years there appeared several other models with improvements including professional digital cameras, such as Kodak DCS-100 with 1.3MP and a high price of $13,000, Casio QV-10 with LCD display, Kodak DC-25 with CompactFlash, and the Ricoh RDC-1 with video recording.

How Does a Digital Camera Work?



The process is as follows: as you capture the image the light strikes the digital sensor array – like CCD and CMOS – which is made of millions of pixels, laid out in an array of rows and columns (example: 3000 x 1500 pixel resolution).
These tiny dots of light forming the image get through color filters above the sensors and then the sensor chip converts the image from light waves into analog electrical signal, which is then sent to the Analog-Digital Converter. Other electronic filters adjust the white balance, color and other parameters, after which it gets compressed and pixels that are in plus are dumped. Next, the digital image is stored in the buffer memory until it gets full and then written onto the storage media.



In the history of the camera, developing companies have tried to add more and more features to create the perfect model, and nowadays we find cool designed cameras, compact, lightweight and with innovative technologies such as the smile detector, which can be set so that your device to capture only when people’s smiles are detected.
When choosing a digital camera model, there are several factors you should take a look at first. These include the use – if you need to take professional artistic pictures or just to capture the funniest moments of your trips – and you’ll have to check SLR cameras which are bigger and more expensive. They can shoot fast-moving subjects allowing you to capture multiple images in a second. More megapixels means that the image printed on paper will be bigger and sharper. If you’d have to capture at long distances you’d surely need some model with larger zoom range, which makes the angle of view wider, allowing you to capture the subject or landscape closer. I am talking here, of course, about the optical zoom. The digital zoom lets you zoom more, but when you use this one, the picture quality lowers.



Sometimes, in bright conditions, you can’t distinguish the image on the LCD display, so a model with viewfinder is a great solution for this.
The ISO feature refers at how sensitive the camera is to light and the lower the ISO setting, the better the pictures captured in bright conditions are. In other environments you’ll need to adjust it and higher it, if the camera permits this. It is important to test the camera before you buy it and see how much it damages the resulting pictures when the ISO is too high.
One of the most important decisional factors is the image stabilizer. Don’t buy a digital camera that doesn’t feature it, because you won’t be able to get perfect pictures when your hand is shaking. You need blur-free pictures so try to look for image stabilizer or modes like Sports, Fast Shot or Burst.

On the same first place of importance is the shutter delay. When you press the button don’t wait a few seconds for the image to be captured. It has to happen in maximum 1 second and a half in daylight.

(Sources: reevoo; digicamhistory; InfoBorder; epi centre; Wikipedia; howstuffworks)

Portable DVD players don’t seem to be getting much attention these days. They are sort of redundant if you compare them with PMPs. But what would you say if a DVD player were to come in the form of a Sony PSP?

I don’t understand how Maxx, with its PDV-8500BLK design, managed to avoid patent infringements that would immediately be reported by Sony. They could’ve bought the patent, though… Anyhow, while the looks of a PSP clone could prove to be an advantage for this DVD player, we must see some pretty good specs in order to determine if it can compete with the more versatile PMPs.

So let’s see what we have here… First of all we notice the wide 8.5-inch LCD display which is a bit bigger than the PSP’s. The PDV-8500BLK can play videos in DVD, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD and SVCD formats and it also provides support for JPEG, MP3 and MPEG4 files via a built-in SD, MMS/MS card reader slot. It won’t play UMD discs, but then again it’s not really a PSP.

In case the PSP screen proves too small for you, you can go ahead and order one of these Maxx players from Amazon for $120.

G-Cube is a team of female technicians that design cool computer peripherals on ladies’ tastes. It provides computer mice, mouse pads, keyboard or USB hubs in stylish colors and modern look.
Today I am showing you these nice USB hubs with 4 ports and plug-and-play capability. They are made of durable yet light materials to be are to use and transport.


The high-speed USB 2.0 technology enables transfer rates of up to 480 Mbps speed and all models are compatible with PCs, Macs and 1.1 peripherals. Auto Recovery is a tool in charge with over-current protection and recovery. There is also a travel pouch accessory for extra protection against scratches, during traveling, and the dimensions of the G-Cube hub are of 3.5 x 1.5 x 0.5 inches.


For $19.99, you have some color options to choose from: Aloha, Golden Aloha, Lime-tini, Tux-tini, Red Apple-tini, Strawberry-tini, Breeze-tini, Ice-tini and Lux Leopard.

I think you still remember that 15-monitor display. You ain’t seen nothing yet, I tell you. Check out what NASA is using.

NASA explains that their monitor wall was developed by scientists and engineers in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames. The wall is made up of no less than 128 displays and it is capable of rendering one quarter billion pixel graphics, which is supposed to be the world's highest resolution scientific visualization and data exploration environment. The new tool enables scientists to quickly explore datasets that otherwise would take many years to analyze.

Measuring around 23-foot-wide by 10-foot tall, the liquid crystal display wall aka Hyperwall-2 is being used to view, analyze, and communicate results from NASA's high-fidelity modeling and simulation projects supporting the safety of new space exploration vehicle designs, atmospheric re-entry analysis for the space shuttle, earthquakes, climate change, global weather and black hole collisions.

"The Hyperwall-2 offers a supercomputer-scale environment that is truly up to the task of visualization and exploration of the very large datasets routinely produced by NASA supercomputers and instruments," said Bryan Biegel, NAS deputy chief. "The system also will be used to get highly detailed information on how NAS supercomputers are operating, enabling staff to quickly and precisely diagnose problems or inefficiencies with the supercomputers or the software running on them."

What you don’t see in the pictures is the system that is powering the displays, which integrates 128 graphics processing units and 1,024 processor cores, with 74 teraflops (one teraflop equals one trillion floating point operations per second) of peak processing power and a data storage capacity of 475 terabytes (one terabyte equals one trillion bytes). That’s nowhere near the Roadrunner – the fastest supercomputer on Earth at the moment, but the Hyperwall-2 system allows researchers to quickly determine trends across an array of related simulation results, or to view a single large image or animation. It would take nearly 600 video game consoles to equal the hyperwall-2's graphics processing capabilities.

According to NASA, the Hyperwall-2 system has more than 100 times the processing power of the original 49-screen Hyperwall developed in 2002 by the NAS visualization team.

The slimmest desktop computer models coming from HP were announced earlier this month under the name HP TouchSmart. The series is an all-in-one PC consisting of 4 parts: the panel integrating a high-resolution display and the hardware, a remote, the keyboard and the mouse.
It’s called TouchSmart because it allows you to browse through your filesnand applications with a touch of a finger, without the need for peripherals. The new additions are: HP TouchSmart IQ504 and HP TouchSmart IQ506.

As it comes in a thin form factor it occupies very small space on your desk and can be moved very easily, having a lighter weight than standard desktop computers.
There is no other desktop PC so elegant and stylish, and it is powered by some of the latest technologies. “The HP TouchSmart PC is all about reinventing the personal computer experience," said John Cook, vice president of marketing, Worldwide Consumer PC Business, HP.

Some cool functionalities of the 2 new models introduced include TV tuner with video recording, DVD burner, YouTube video upload, high-end stereo speakers, web camera built-in, chat over the Internet, and lots of other things, all controlled via the touchscreen technology.

"The introduction of a touch computer with such a strong focus on digital entertainment opens the door to an entirely new way for consumers to engage with their content," said Stephen Baker, vice president, industry analysis, The NPD Group. "HP TouchSmart PCs will allow people to interact with their photos, videos, music and games in unique ways, plus they do everything that you’d expect from a traditional PC."

Now let’s see more details about their inside components and characteristics!
These slim PCs have adjustable 22-inch high definition widescreen displays and are powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors. They bring WLAN wireless connectivity, cool keyboards with HP Ambient Light, 4GB memory, card reader, and are available at $1,299 and $1,499. The HP TouchSmart IQ504 is already available in stores, while the IQ506 model will come out next month equipped with TV tuner.



IQ506 runs on Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 and integrates the Intel Core 2 Duo T5850 processor clocked at 2.16GHz, the Intel GM965 Express chipset, 4096MB SDRAM memory, 500GB S-ATA HDD storage at 7200 rpm, slot-load super multi DVD burner, NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS HD graphics with 256MB dedicated memory, Blu-ray support, DirectX 10 support, network interface, Bluetooth, WLAN, HD audio, TV tuner, 5-in-1 card reader, FireWire, 5 USB ports, wireless keyboard, wireless optical mouse, and built-in web camera, all measuring 21 x 2.6 x 17.4 inches at 24lbs.

IQ504 has an Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processor with 2GHz speed, 4096MB memory, 320GB hard drive, and integrates the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 with 126MB dedicated memory.