June 8, 2003

The CIA is funding a new image-data-mining technology: The Met in NYC is showing work by Charles Sheeler: Kodak, Konica and SiPix have announced new cameras:

The San Jose (i.e. Silicon Valley) Mercury News has a report on a new image recognition technology, funded by "the CIA's venture-capital organization" In-Q-Tel. The people at piXlogic say that their system can be part of an image search engine that uses image-objects instead of keywords. They say that once a batch of images — still or video — has been processed to extract "logical visual shape information" and tagged with "mathematical characterization of the extracted objects, stored as metadata," any image, or portion of an image can then be used as a search query. Face recognition is a further goal — the idea for now is to provide tools for fast "data mining" in huge numbers of image files for things like, say, ordinance and/or targets. But that doesn't rule out use by botanical companies or historians of church architecture. (Maybe someday a "schooner" or "lenticular cloud" will more often be a cumulative mental image of the type, for kids doing their homework.) The product that they are offering now is an SDK (software developer kit), which they say can be used to integrate their software with existing applications — in other words, you provide the GUI (graphical user interface) and any other incidental processes.

In the history of photography, the role of representing early attempts in formal abstraction falls to Charles Sheeler. He began as a painter; an American who contributed to "The Armory Show," which brought European modernism to New York in 1913. Anyone who has given geometric shapes, differentiated by tones, a chance to take over in a photograph, knows the territory that Sheeler is best known for working. There is an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC — The Photography of Charles Sheeler — through August 17th. A few thumbnails of his work can be clicked larger at MetMuseum.org.

Kodak has expanded on the basic form of their DX6340 in three new models and Konica has introduced a minor update on their KD-410Z for the Japan market.

Kodak's new CX6200, CX6330 and DX6440 have 2, 3 and 4 usable megapixels and will be available beginning with the 6330 later this month for about $279 and the other two next month for $129 and $399. These are compatible with the most recent EasyShare docks and also with Kodak's new printer dock 6000. This new dock merges non-cable connectivity with the idea of direct camera-to-printer systems, where no computer is needed. The PD6000 makes a 4 x 6 inch dye-sub print (smaller than the wide-angle image here might suggest) in about 90 seconds. It can also print from a computer through USB.

Konica has introduced their KD-510Z in Japan, with a few firmware updates on their previous KD-410Z.

Info on these cameras and a new low-end DV camera for $129 from SiPix can be found (with resourceful opinions) at The Imaging-Resource.