Robots with Cameras

Sci-Fi writer Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are worth a real world look. Robot cops are emerging. They are basically Camera Apps. 

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Robotics as a Service

Cloud-based software will manage the skills, cognitive capabilities and support for the coming robotic age. Robotics as a service (RaaS) will create a demand for skilled programmers that understand this technology. Robots will be everywhere. Eyes in the sky and on the ground. 

Some of the best camera apps will be on Robots. Checkout IBM Bluemix with Watson and Cloudant, a cloud based database. Developers are building SaaS and RaaS in Swift and Kitura, a web framework. IBM Watson

See this article on ZDNet 

"Representative companies employing a RaaS business model include PrecisionHawk (drone-based surveying for agriculture), Knightscope (robots for security and surveillance), Aethon (mobile robots for healthcare logistics), InTouch Health (mobile robotic telepresence), and Liquid Robotics (unmanned underwater vehicles."

Mobile Photo Connect

Mobile Photo Connect conference! Oct. 24-25

https://www.mobilephotoconnect.com

Best Camera will be attending and reporting on this event. 

This is where the action will be in San Francisco for Camera Apps. They will be hosting over 200 potential partners and industry leaders in the areas of: photo & video app developers, mobile vendors, cloud storage providers, software companies, camera manufacturers, trade press, and investors.

We hope to find some great Camera Apps and developer tools coming out of this event. 

Here's a list of some of the presenters.  We will be looking at their products in future posts. 

• Adobe
• Beamr
• CaptureLife
• Diagramics
• EyeEm
• Fujifilm
• Getty Images
• Google
• GumGum
• HP
• Kite
• Kwilt
• Lightricks
• Microsoft
• National Geographic
• Palmarés Advisors
• PastBook
• PhotoGurus
• Picanova
• PicsArt
• Polarr
• Polygram
• Pwinty Ltd.
• Rainhut Inc.
• SanDisk
• Streetography
• Taopix
• TeamFotog
• TechCrunch
• The Refiners
• Upthere
• V360
• Vicman
• Zink

What is ARKit from Apple?

Augmented Reality is becoming mainstream for Camera Apps.

ARKit is an Augmented Reality SDK (software development kit) from Apple for programmers, in particular Camera App coders. The SDK is basically a framework library that helps programmers create Augmented Reality Camera Apps for IOS devices. 

ARKit uses Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) for tracking what the camera sees.  It combines the camera sensor data with motion data. And ARKit uses scene understanding to locate horizontal planes for placement of virtual objects onto the scene.

ARKit can also estimate the amount of lighting in a scene to then adjust the brightness for virtual objects to match the scene. It's pretty slick.

This new toolkit is available for use on IOS 11 and is programmed by developers using the new Xcode 9. It's available for both the Swift and Objective-C programming languages. 

Some example Apps are already popping up in the App Store taking advantage of this new technology. A pretty good review of these first Apps can be found here on theverge.com

Many more to AR Apps will follow and we will be scouting for the best ones. 

Wikitude Augmented Browser

The Wikitude World Browser App is an augmented reality browser.  Using your smartphone’s camera the augmented browser uses over 3,500 associated content providers to give you information about where you are. For  example: landmarks, directions to the nearest ATM, suggested places to eat and hotels through Yelp and TripAdvisor.  Not sure about the bug-bug stating game included. But I like the ability to check mark and share your favorite spots via Facebook. That's cool.

Download for free:

Android      IOS 

iPhone 8 and Augmented Reality

The new iPhone 8 has wireless charging, freeing up a port for your headset. But this new phone also has a new camera with augmented reality features. Combined with the ARkit SDK and IOS 11, developers have a new toy and a new market to attack. This was predicted here on Best Camera. We can't wait to see the new augmented reality camera apps.

What coders are learning about AR

Apple intro to ARkit

iPhone X Front Camera Face Detection

So you're telling me there's a chance. The face detection has a one in a million chance of letting the wrong person into your phone. The X  has no home button, it's water proof and costs $999. One more thing:

Steve Jobs’ boat in Hanalei, Kauai