New Product Combines Breakthrough Universal Robotics Software With Logitech Hardware, Provides Engineers, Filmmakers and Game Developers Everything Needed for Precise 3D Imaging and Positioning

Universal Robotics, Inc. today announced the launch of the Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle, a new product that pairs Universal’s Spatial Vision software with two Logitech® Webcam Pro 9000 USB cameras and 3D glasses. The bundle provides all the technology necessary to allow anyone to easily set up a 3D vision system. Simple-to-use and cost-effective, the Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle brings 3D imaging and positioning to many applications from engineering to filmmaking to video game development.

“The Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle joins innovative technologies that make 3D widely accessible,” said Tim Leehane, director of product marketing for webcams, Logitech. “We are impressed with the cutting edge solution that Universal Robotics is introducing and are thrilled that they our leveraging Logitech HD webcams to bring this easy-to-install and cost-effective solution to the market.”

Originally designed to provide 3D positioning data to robots, Spatial Vision is software that turns a pair of webcams into a cost-effective, easy-to-calibrate and install 3D vision system. Logitech Pro 9000 USB webcams were used by Universal Robotics in the development of Spatial Vision. The reliable and easy-to-use cameras feature high-definition resolution and autofocus lenses that make them ideal for a Spatial Vision 3D vision system that allows users to establish and measure the 3D position of points in space with millimeter accuracy.

The Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle can be used in a variety of real-world and virtual-world applications. With a built-in image capture and video recording feature that instantly creates 3D video and images, it can record 3D video on its own or assist in the creation of professional-quality 3D films. The bundle components can help filmmakers align any camera for 3D filming, saving laborious setup and costly reshooting. The calibration files created by Spatial Vision visually correct images during the production process to optimize 3D viewing.

The Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle also is an excellent tool for 3D avatar game development. After real-world motion capture with Spatial Vision, a developer can integrate the visually-corrected 3D motion into their game development for realistic avatar motion.

Its combination of accuracy and affordability makes the Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle particularly well-matched for technical and engineering labs and academic research applications as well. Universal’s Spatial Vision software and the Logitech webcams can identify specific 3D points and quickly calculate distances in space that are difficult to measure by other means.

“With the Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle, we are offering an easy way for anyone to get the technology to create a 3D vision system,” said Hob Wubbena, Director of Marketing of Universal Robotics. “Spatial Vision optimizes image quality from the Logitech Webcam Pro 9000’s high-quality Carl Zeiss lens, the premium autofocus system and a two-megapixel HD sensor. Those who use this bundle will benefit from the same millimeter accuracy, efficiency and ease-of-use we’ve experienced in our labs.”

The Spatial Vision Bundle includes the Spatial Vision software, two Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 USB cameras and a pair of 3D glasses. Priced at $599, the bundle is available through the Universal Robotics website.

Spatial Vision was created during the development of Universal’s signature technology, Neocortex™, a sensory-motor based form of artificial intelligence that enables moving machines to learn from their experiences and perform tasks that are unsafe or difficult for humans.

Universal Robotics will be on hand at NVIDIA’s Emerging Companies Summit in San Jose, Calif. on Sept. 22 and 23 to discuss the Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle as well as its other groundbreaking software. The company can be found at booth #88/90. For more information about the Spatial Vision product family, go to www.universalrobotics.com/spatialvision.html, or contact Universal Robotics at (615) 366-7245 or info@universalrobotics.com.

About Universal Robotics, Inc.
Universal Robotics creates software that enables machines to learn from their experiences, react and adapt to their surroundings, and perform tasks that are costly, dangerous or difficult for humans to undertake. The company’s signature technology, Neocortex, which was developed over seven years at NASA and Vanderbilt University, will increase efficiency and worker safety across industries in applications including warehousing, mining, handling hazardous waste and automating vehicles such as forklifts. www.universalrobotics.com

original post: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Spatial-Vision-Logitech-Bundle-Makes-3D-Vision-Easy-and-Affordable-1322300.htm

While manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic are working on single-bodied dual lens cameras, the evolution of stereo capture could be driven by 3D rig developers like Element Technica, writes Adrian Pennington.

Stephen Pizzo, the co-founder of Element Technica believes there will soon come a point where 3D rigs are indivisible from 3D camera systems.

“A year ago if you were prepping a 3D job you had to put together a bespoke signal and power workflow for each project with multiple bundles of cable for video lines, rig control and power and additional on board batteries,” Pizzo says. “It all added to preparation time and required highly skilled technicians.

“What is happening now is that there is a higher degree of integration and standardisation so that you only need two cables for each video signal and another for the power and you are ready. Combine that with new lightweight rigs capable of being mounted on Steadicam and, once you get onboard recording, the rig ceases to be a rig and in effect becomes a unified stereo camera system.”

Pizzo highlights Telecast’s fibre adapter CopperHead 3400 as one innovation. Introduced at IBC this is the first product of its kind to mount directly onto a dual-camera 3D rig and transport the signals from two HD cameras as well as the rig’s control system and also carry a return 3D HD/SDI signal back to the camera operator – all over a thin, lightweight fibre optic cable.

“Directors and DPs like to be able to choose the imaging device of their choice with the optics like want and simply fit those to a system that gives them all the flexibility they need. For now people are experimenting with the components they need to fit onto a 3D rig but in the longer run everything will be integrated together into one package.

“The missing piece of development is in the optics. There will be a major development here I am sure which will enable developers to create small form factor, perhaps single-sensor, 3D cameras with all the flexibility and performance of a 2D camera.”

www.elementtechnica.com

original post: http://www.tvbeurope.com/main-content/full/3d-rigs-to-morph-into-3d-cameras;jsessionid=8A85BC8BECFB12AD5A18A0C7143F9E00