CES 2014: Samsung Announces Line Of Smart Cameras

Samsung debuted a new line of sharing-focued, Smart cameras at CES. Samsung’s other, more trendy announcements – such as the connected home and kitchen – mean that this one has flown under the radar a little bit. Nonetheless, Samsung is trying its best to elevate point-and-shoot cameras to the same level as smartphones by incorporating WiFi and NFC for pairing with smartphones and social networks. As well, the selling points include higher zoom – up to 12x – and higher quality than smartphones can offer, at 16MP images as a bare minimum. The higher end models come with HDMI and SD slots, as do most high-end cameras, but the lower-end cameras feature Micro SDs and weigh in at just a third of a pound. Whether the point-and-shoot era has past us by with smartphones quite capable of taking over that role remains to be seen, but CES is the best possible venue for Samsung to make the case for consumers to continue to invest in light, portable, sharable cameras. 

Matterport Brings 3D Mapping To Life

Startup Matterport, having just closed a round of investor funding, is looking to bring its 3D mapping camera to life. The company’s “interactive viewing platform” allows consumers to built virtual, cloud-based maps of their homes, offices, or any other site of interest using a special camera rig. The maps, stored and accessed in the cloud, will ideally be viewable on laptops and tablets, and will fulfill a plethora of purposes as cloud-based computing and mobile become the norm. Though the project is ambitious, and there has been little to report on the actual development front, Matterport has nearly raised $6 million in funding, and you can pre-order the camera and device currently.