Hands-On With Intel's RealSense Snapshot Camera

[scolaner]

We evaluated the Intel RealSense SnapShot depth camera mounted on the Dell Venue 8 7000 tablet.

Hands-On With Intel's RealSense Snapshot Camera : Read more

 

[Eggz]

Looks like it could be pretty useful in the future, once all of the bugs are worked out.

Lens distortion is a real problem when shooting off angle. It's like pointing a projector off-axis at a wall. When you do that, parts of the image get stretched toward one corner and others get shrunk toward the opposite corner (like below).

A similar thing happens in reverse when you take pictures. So that could be throwing off the calculations as well. I'm not sure how they could adjust for that very well. Seems like an interesting challenge.

 

[g-unit1111]

Sounds like it could be useful, I've never had a device with a good camera. Looks like manufacturers are starting to take this kind of photography seriously.

 

[best_buy]

The settings page says it's powered by Aquifi! I thought it was Intel !

 

[nroslm]

Seems like a good sensor fora variety of things, but useless as a camera. Good photos require good glass which costs hundreds or thousands of dollars, this simpy requires to much glass to implement and even for the point and shoot crowd, I'm sure they'd be more happy with resources put into a larger sensor since these devices have no room for more/better glass.

 

[nekromobo]

Countries which have not officially adopted the metric system (US, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Liberia). Please use metric system, enuff said.

 

[razvanc]

In the measurement tools defence:
1. The 7 inch brick is actually smaller than the 8 inch ones (you can kind of se it with the naked eye)
2. The door is at an angle. Look down at the picture. That probably hurts the depth estimation and with it the height estimation.

I wonder, to test the reliability of the measurement couldn't you try again. You know measure twice cut one...

 

[scolaner]

In the measurement tools defence:
1. The 7 inch brick is actually smaller than the 8 inch ones (you can kind of se it with the naked eye)
2. The door is at an angle. Look down at the picture. That probably hurts the depth estimation and with it the height estimation.

I wonder, to test the reliability of the measurement couldn't you try again. You know measure twice cut one...

You're right in your "naked eye" assessment--but a major issue, which I address in the article, is that it's nearly impossible to shoot exactly straight on with a device like this. There's no tripod mount (although I'm sure you could rig one up somehow). You're just...holding a tablet.

(Plus, if you need to measure something and have the time to set up a jerryrigged tripod, it would be easier to just use a tape measure.)

And, of course, I "tried again"...I took multiple shots of everything, lol.

 

[warezme]

I get the feeling that if this had been an Apple device the writer would have been oozing wet in his underpants and tripping with kudos even on a pre production unit despite all it's foibles.

 

[Brian_R170]

I got a 7840 last week and the software update to enable the measuring function was pushed to it the next day. I had mixed results with the accuracy. It definitely worked best on things that were flat and less than 10 feet away. The photos where I rested my hands on a table and the camera angle was within 10 degrees or so of being perpendicular to the measurement line were accurate to the nearest inch every time. I took several photos of measuring devices (a yard stick and carpenter's square) to make the analysis a lot easier. The worst measurements came when I tried to measure a coworker's height. He is 6'1" and I got values from 5'3" to 5'10". I also got "unknown" occasionally when measuring multiple objects in the same photo, but it worked when I deleted the unknown-endpoints and created them again.

 

[Duckhunt]

Benghazi

 

[epobirs]

A bit disappointing that this doesn't appear to do much better than Smart Tools, a cheap Android app I've had on my phone for years. It's early yet for such stuff, though. Ten years from now you'll take it for granted in any new device.

 

[truegenius]

This tablet is meant for Brady Barr of National Geography 😛

he have been using some laser equipped custom DIY project to measure length of animals using normal camera ( real creator of real sense ? 😛 )



http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/dangerous-encounters/videos/laser-cam-a-croc/