本月初， IMS Research 發(fā)布一篇聲明稿，質(zhì)疑若蘋果(Apple)及其 iPad 在用戶接口的技術(shù)發(fā)展上，是否已經(jīng)落后于競爭對手。
這家市場研究公司的論點(diǎn)是：確實(shí)，蘋果用觸控接口改變了游戲規(guī)則；但這能代表一切嗎？蘋果是不是也應(yīng)該在下一代產(chǎn)品中擁抱嵌入式視覺技術(shù)？
所有產(chǎn)業(yè)界人士都想知道：在超越觸控之后，下一個(gè)用戶接口的戰(zhàn)場在哪里？會是手勢、動作或語音？甚至心靈感應(yīng)──那又是什么玩意兒？
今天，有愈來愈多的 FPGA 、 DSP 和處理器公司，都將未來押注在嵌入式視覺技術(shù)上。
而促成此一趨勢的主要原因包括：
1. 嵌入式系統(tǒng)中的處理功率不斷提升(使用并行處理)；以及
2. 日益復(fù)雜的機(jī)器視覺算法讓嵌入式系統(tǒng)不只要“看”，還必須擷取信息，以進(jìn)行分析并產(chǎn)生必要的資料。
Berkeley Design Technology, Inc. (BDTI) 總裁 Jeff Bier提到，“由于微軟在 Xbox 360 中采用了 Kinect ，現(xiàn)在我們已經(jīng)能證明嵌入式視覺確實(shí)可行。我們現(xiàn)在都能知道它的工作原理了?！?
此外，消費(fèi)者們也越來越熟悉姿勢控制；汽車制造商則正在將嵌入式視覺應(yīng)用整合到汽車中，以實(shí)現(xiàn)更安全的汽車駕駛。
IMS Research 首席分析師Jon Cropley指出，智能汽車相機(jī)模塊市場在2011年達(dá)到了3億美元，預(yù)計(jì)到2015年，年平均成長率將達(dá)到30%。
在此同時(shí)，他接著指出，2011年智能型視頻監(jiān)控設(shè)備(嵌入式分析設(shè)備)市場規(guī)模估計(jì)為2.5億美元，預(yù)估到2015年的年平均成長率也將超過20%。
而另一個(gè)更大的市場，或許會是工業(yè)機(jī)器視覺硬件，這部份主要產(chǎn)品包括智能傳感器、智能相機(jī)、精巧型視覺系統(tǒng)，以及機(jī)器視覺相機(jī)等。Cropley估計(jì)2011年該市場約為15億美元，平均年成長率都超過10%。
然而，從工程角度來看，Bier指出，許多設(shè)計(jì)工程通常都不會先考慮到視覺技術(shù)，因?yàn)樗麄內(nèi)匀徊粔蛄私猓恢滥苡盟_發(fā)出什么樣的創(chuàng)新應(yīng)用。
嵌入式視覺其實(shí)是一個(gè)“經(jīng)典的長尾理論故事”，Bier說?！霸谠S多不同領(lǐng)域的市場中，已經(jīng)有成千上萬的應(yīng)用都采用了嵌入式視覺技術(shù)?！盉ier創(chuàng)立了“嵌入式視覺聯(lián)盟”(Embedded Vision Alliance)，該聯(lián)盟旨在激勵(lì)業(yè)界人士使用視覺技術(shù)設(shè)計(jì)嵌入式系統(tǒng)。
《EE Times》和“嵌入式視覺聯(lián)盟”共同探討了采用嵌入式視覺技術(shù)的最近消費(fèi)性產(chǎn)品開發(fā)現(xiàn)況。透過以下圖集，我們希望讓更多人了解到嵌入式視覺技術(shù)向更廣泛領(lǐng)域拓展的可能性。
絕不漏掉任何一個(gè)字？
這是 Livescribe 公司的行銷口號，該公司開發(fā)了一套由數(shù)字筆、數(shù)字紙張和軟件組成的平臺。當(dāng)與數(shù)字紙張共同使用時(shí)， Livescribe 整合了紅外線相機(jī)和數(shù)字錄音機(jī)的數(shù)字筆可錄下使用者的對話，此時(shí)使用者還是可以用這只筆在數(shù)字紙張上做記錄。
yyresmc
數(shù)字紙上有無數(shù)個(gè)細(xì)小的黑點(diǎn)，基本上人眼無法看見，但筆型相機(jī)可檢測到。透過電子紙，使用者可重復(fù)播放筆記上所記載的部份內(nèi)容──無論你的涂鴉有多么潦草。沒有一個(gè)字會漏掉。這真是每記者的夢想；也是政客們的噩夢啊。
本文下一頁：手機(jī)測酒精濃度
編譯： Joy Teng
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手機(jī)測酒精濃度
BreathalEyes 可以用 iPhone 來判定一個(gè)人血液中的酒精含量。 BreathalEyes 的原理是掃描使用者的眼睛，來衡量使用者眼球的水平凝視顫動(Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, HGN)情況──即眼球不由自主地抽搐或彈跳。要使用這款 iPhone 版的酒精探測器，只需要用到 iPhone 相機(jī)和0.99美元的 BreathalEyes 應(yīng)用程序就行了。
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本文下一頁：大家都能做視力測試
編譯： Joy Teng
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大家都能做視力測試
EyeNetra 提出了一種任何人都能使用，且快速簡便的視力測試方法，可在任何地方做視力測試，透過智能手機(jī)得到度數(shù)測量結(jié)果，并提供眼睛保健信息。
在安裝 EyeNetra 的 Netra-G軟件后，只要遵照幾個(gè)簡單的指令，就可以在手機(jī)上測量度數(shù)，并傳送給后端的醫(yī)療保健平臺。
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本文下一頁：免觸控用戶接口
編譯： Joy Teng
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免觸控用戶接口
由于微軟 Kinect 的大受歡迎，手勢控制已經(jīng)成為消費(fèi)市場上最流行的嵌入式視覺應(yīng)用之一。
一家以色列公司 eyesight 開發(fā)出了專為嵌入式平臺定制的先進(jìn)影像處理和機(jī)器視覺算法。該技術(shù)獨(dú)立于底層處理器和攝影鏡頭，能以最小的CPU功耗執(zhí)行，而且可嵌入在計(jì)算機(jī)、平板電腦和移動設(shè)備中。
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本文下一頁：聰明監(jiān)控相機(jī)──能知道它在看什么
編譯： Joy Teng
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聰明監(jiān)控相機(jī)──能知道它在看什么
Archerfish 開發(fā)的視頻監(jiān)控系統(tǒng)能知道它看到了什么。你可以告訴這套系統(tǒng)它應(yīng)該注意什么，像是你叫的出租車何時(shí)抵達(dá)，它會在出租車到達(dá)時(shí)發(fā)出通知。透過結(jié)合低成本、高功率組件和視頻分析功能，這家公司已經(jīng)開始提供家用視頻監(jiān)控系統(tǒng)。
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本文下一頁：針對售后服務(wù)市場的停車輔助相機(jī)
編譯： Joy Teng
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針對售后服務(wù)市場的停車輔助相機(jī)
CogniVue的影像感知處理器和應(yīng)用軟件，讓針對售后服務(wù)市場的小型后視相機(jī)搖身一變成為智能型停車輔助系統(tǒng)。該公司的技術(shù)提供了變形、透視校正、對象檢測與距離估計(jì)等功能，同時(shí)可提供多種觀看模式，包括全景、自上而下，左/右分離，以及覆蓋等。
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本文下一頁：用相機(jī)檢測生命體征
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用相機(jī)檢測生命體征
飛利浦開發(fā)的生命體征相機(jī)應(yīng)用程序可執(zhí)行在 iPad 2 或 iPhone 4S 上。相機(jī)可檢測到面部顏色的細(xì)微變化以測量心率，它也透過追蹤胸部的運(yùn)動情況來測量使用者的呼吸頻率。使用者只需要坐在iPad前面就行了。
目前還不知道誰會愿意像飛利浦廣告中所建議的，在 Facebook 上或用電子郵件告訴女朋友你的心跳速度，或是其它的生命體征，不過，iPad 2或iPhone 4S已經(jīng)有能力做到這一點(diǎn)，這是毋庸置疑的。
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本文下一頁：開車怕分心或瞌睡？ 機(jī)器能察覺
編譯： Joy Teng
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開車怕分心或瞌睡？機(jī)器能察覺
Tobii Technology表示，觀察眼瞼的運(yùn)動和凝視的方向，可以在駕駛快要瞌睡，或是完全沒注意到道路情況時(shí)做出提醒。Tobii公司已經(jīng)開發(fā)出了自有的眼動追蹤(eye-tracking)技術(shù)。
Tobii 的傳感器緩存器和分析器可感測眼睛的位置；眼瞼的閉合情況以及眼瞼的速率。該公司的眼動追蹤技術(shù)還能提供眼睛注視和/或頭部姿勢的分析資料。最重要的是， 它是為所有類型的使用者所設(shè)計(jì)，無論你是否戴眼鏡、任何年齡層、不同人種、各種顏色的眼球等，都能夠適用這套產(chǎn)品。
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本文下一頁：新一代自動販賣機(jī)
編譯： Joy Teng
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新一代自動販賣機(jī)
英特爾(Intel)、 Okaya Electronics 和 Sanden 提出了一種全新的自動販賣機(jī)概念，這種機(jī)器看起來是一個(gè)垂直式的65英寸觸控HD顯示器。透明的顯示器能讓客戶看到販賣機(jī)內(nèi)部產(chǎn)品，而屏幕則可顯示交疊的文字信息、圖形和動畫。
自動販賣機(jī)具備一個(gè)攝影鏡頭和“觀眾印象評估”(audience impression metric)功能。自動販賣機(jī)會根據(jù)相機(jī)拍攝的影像執(zhí)行面部識別算法。大部份情況下，機(jī)器可猜出客戶性別和年齡，因而顯示適合的廣告內(nèi)容，為客戶提供使用者統(tǒng)計(jì)等相關(guān)資料。
如果你聽到它“哎喲！”地叫了一聲……是有人踢了它一腳嗎？yyresmc
本文下一頁：Swivel 虛擬更衣室
編譯： Joy Teng
本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載
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微軟(Microsoft)在2012 CES 中展示了名為 Swivel 的虛擬更衣室。這個(gè)虛擬系統(tǒng)設(shè)計(jì)能讓顧客看到衣服和配件實(shí)際穿搭在身上的模樣。它可以讓你看到穿上每件衣服的樣子，而且不用排隊(duì)等試衣間。這個(gè)軟件也被稱作“虛擬變裝室！”
yyresmc
編譯： Joy Teng
本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載
參考英文原文： Is 'vision' the next-gen must-have user interface?，by Junko Yoshida
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Is 'vision' the next-gen must-have user interface?
Junko Yoshida
Earlier this month, IMS Research (Austin, Texas) issued a press release questioning if Apple and the iPad are falling behind competitors in user interface technologies.
The point of the research company’s commentary, to paraphrase, was: Sure, Apple has changed the game by bringing touch-screen interaction to the masses; but is that all? Shouldn’t Apple be also embracing embedded vision technologies in the next product release?
The industry still wants to know: Where will the battle lines be drawn for the next-generation user interface – beyond touch. Will it be gesture, motion, or voice? What about mental telepathy?
A growing number of FPGA, DSP and processor companies are now betting the future on embedded vision.
Contributing to this movement are: a) the growing processing power (using parallelism) in embedded systems, and b) increasingly sophisticated machine-vision algorithms that let embedded systems not just see but extract information to produce necessary intelligence.
Jeff Bier, president of Berkeley Design Technology, Inc., said, “Thanks to Microsoft’s Kinect (used in Xbox 360), we now have ‘existence proof’ for embedded vision. We now know it works.”
Consumers, moreover, are becoming more familiar with gesture controls, and automotive manufacturers are integrating embedded-vision applications in cars in the cause of driver safety.
Jon Cropley, principal analyst at IMS Research said the market for intelligent automotive camera modules alone was estimated at around $300 million in 2011 and is forecast to grow at an average annual rate of over 30% to 2015.
Meanwhile, the market for intelligent video surveillance devices (devices with embedded analytics) was estimated at about $250 million in 2011 and is forecast for annual growth to 2015 of more than 20%, he added.
Biggest and perhaps most established is the market for industrial machine vision hardware (smart sensors, smart cameras, compact vision systems, and machine vision cameras). Cropley's estimate is around $1.5 billion in 2011 with an average annual rate over 10%.
But from the engineering community’s standpoint, Bier said, “Many design engineers, generally, just don’t think about vision, and they still don’t know what’s possible.”
Embedded vision is in fact a “classic long-tail story,” Bier said. “There are thousands of applications; and its market is extremely diverse.” Bier founded Embedded Vision Alliance, an industry association set up to inspire and empower embedded system designers to use vision technology.
Working with the Embedded Vision Alliance, EE Times put together an image gallery that showcases the latest embedded vision-enabled consumer products.
Never miss a word?
That’s a marketing tagline used by Livescribe, a company that developed a platform consisting of a digital pen, digital paper and software apps.When used with digital paper, Livescribe’s pen -- integrated with an infrared camera and a digital audio recorder -- records a conversation while one participant takes notes on digital paper.
Digital paper consists of numerous small black dots in patterns essentially invisible to the human eye, but detectable by the pen’s camera. It allows a user to replay portions of a recording by tapping on the notes – no matter how messy the scribble. Not a single word is lost. A reporter’s dream; a politician's
nightmare.
Breathalyzer on your phone
BreathalEyes determines one’s blood alcohol content using an iPhone. BreathalEyes works by scanning the user’s eyes to measure the presence of Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) -- an involuntary jerking or bouncing of the eyeball. For this iPhone-turned-breathalyzer, all you need is an iPhone’s camera and a 99-cent BreathalEyes app running on the phone.
Eye test, anyone?
EyeNetra has come up with a quick and easy way for anyone, anywhere to take an eye test, get measurements for eyeglasses, and access eye care -- all through a smart phone.
Shown above, snap a hardware adapter onto a smartphone loaded with EyeNetra’s software, Netra-G. By following simple instructions, you get measurements for eyeglasses on the phone, and send it to your care provider.
Touch-free user interface
Thanks to the success of Microsoft’s Kinect, gesture control has become one of the most popular embedded vision applications on the consumer market.
Israel-based eyeSight has come up with advanced image processing and machine vision algorithms tailored for embedded platforms. The technology, independent of the underlying processor and camera, can run on minimal CPU and power consumption; it can be embedded in computers, tablets, and mobile devices.
Video surveillance camera that knows what it’s watching
Archerfish developed a video surveillance system that understands what it sees. You can tell it what to watch for – like the expected arrival of a taxi. It issues an alert for you as soon as it happens. By combining low-cost, high-power components with video analytics, the company offers a mass-market home surveillance system.
After-market park assist camera
CogniVue’s Image Cognition Processor and application software turn a small after-market rear-view camera into a smart parking assistant. The technology offers de-warping, perspective correction, object detection and distance estimation, while allowing multiple viewing modes (panoramic, top-down view and left/right split views), and overlay.
Vital Signs Camera
Philips developed a Vital Signs Camera app that runs on iPad 2 or iPhone 4S. The camera detects subtle changes in facial color to measure heart rate, while it also tracks chest movements to measure your breathing rate. The user merely sits still in front of an iPad.
It’s not clear who actually wants to post one’s vital signs on Facebook or e-mail heart rate readings to his girlfriend (as a Philips demo video suggests), but the capability is there, thanks to iPad 2 or iPhone 4S.
Detect driver distraction and drowsiness
Eyelid movements and the direction of gaze are said to be highly reliable measures to warn drivers of an uncontrolled sleep onset or critical lack of attention to the road, according to Tobii Technology, a company that developed its own eye-tracking technology.
Tobii’s sensor registers and analyzes: presence and position of the eyes; eyelid closure; and velocity of the eyelid. The company’s eye-tracking technology can also provide analytics on eye gaze and/or head pose data. Most important, it's designed to operate on virtually all people regardless of glasses, lenses, age, ethnic origin, eye color and other variations on the physiology of the eye.
Next-generation vending machine will size you up
Intel, Okaya Electronics, and Sanden have developed a new “concept” vending machine featuring a vertically-mounted 65-inch see-through, touch-screen HD display. The transparent display allows customers to see products inside the vending machine, while the screen can show overlaid text messages, graphics and animation.
The vending machine comes with a camera and “audience impression metric” features. Based on the image captured by the camera, the vending machine runs anonymous facial recognition algorithms. The machine can take a good guess at a customer’s gender and age so that it can show advertising content to match the customer’s demographics.
But does it say, "Ouch!" when you kick it?
Swivel?
Microsoft demos a virtual dressing room at CES 2012 called Swivel. Designed as the first virtual try-on system, it allows shoppers to see how clothes and accessories look on them in real-time. It can show you how great you look in complete ensembles "without making you go on a barefooted hunt from the fitting room to multiple departments and back,” says Microsoft. Also a great gift for the "virtual cross-dresser!"
責(zé)編：Quentin
