A few things I saw at SXSW yesterday

I stopped into the booths at SXSW yesterday and here are a few things.
 
1) Saw the Ube switch.  It is currently a hacked smartphone.  Here is a video of me using it.  http://youtu.be/A16BIcXMOoM  I was told it will be shipping the real version by June.
2) There is a company that has an IP device that monitors everything about your soil.  It had a public API.  They aren't selling it yet.  I forgot the name, and the photos I took of it don't have the name on them.  Sorry.
3) There is a company (leapmotion) that is only a month from selling their hand gesture computer interactive controller gizmo.  Think Robert Downey Jr in Iron man flipping his computer images around with his hands reaching into the air.  So, it doesn't have the hologram, but it does do the other stuff.  They can be pre-ordered or you can wait until they show up at Best Buy this summer.  It costs $80.
4) 3d printers all over the place.  People running around with them strapped to their chest printing stuff.  ??? why I don't know.  I have a feeling these things are going to start making their way into the only slightly unusually techie homes in the near future.  Prices are definitely coming down.
5) Techshop was there.  They seem to be doing well.  They are talking about opening more shops.  I was told they need 800 members to turn cash flow positive at the Round Rock location and they currently have 500 (in just a few months).  
6) Beagle micro controller/computer was there.  They have a new model which is supposed to be way cheap (he wouldn't say for sure what that means) but he was comparing the "way" part to a $90 device, so you can take your guess.  I'm thinking it must be well under $50.

Thanks for the updates, SXSW sounded pretty interesting, would have loved to check it out (and meet grumpy cat).

Thanks for coming to the HW meetup Lou!

Thanks Lou.  If you remember information on the company with the soil monitor, I'd definitely be interested.

Utz, let me know if you are going to be in New York (state, not city) anytime, would love to meet up!

dgage said:

Thanks Lou.  If you remember information on the company with the soil monitor, I'd definitely be interested.

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I bet if you search the sxsw website you might find them.  It was something like soilbot.  They had these nifty little "cards" that were made out of pieces of wood cut into leaf shapes, I gave it to my kid and now it is mia.
 
 
Another thing I saw there that was pretty cool was a camera that focuses after you take the picture.  It's like 1 x 1 x 4 inches in size.  You point it where you want, take the picture, then after you take the picture you can adjust the focus to just about any distance.  I have no idea how they do it.
 
EDIT:  It might have been called gardenbot.  If you go to that website they are talking about the open source code that runs it, which they kept stressing to me when i talked to them.  But their is no hardware on that website, it shows you some diy stuff.

Lou Apo said:

Another thing I saw there that was pretty cool was a camera that focuses after you take the picture.  It's like 1 x 1 x 4 inches in size.  You point it where you want, take the picture, then after you take the picture you can adjust the focus to just about any distance.  I have no idea how they do it.

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Probably https://www.lytro.com/

Lou Apo said:

I bet if you search the sxsw website you might find them.  It was something like soilbot.  They had these nifty little "cards" that were made out of pieces of wood cut into leaf shapes, I gave it to my kid and now it is mia.
 
 
Another thing I saw there that was pretty cool was a camera that focuses after you take the picture.  It's like 1 x 1 x 4 inches in size.  You point it where you want, take the picture, then after you take the picture you can adjust the focus to just about any distance.  I have no idea how they do it.
 
EDIT:  It might have been called gardenbot.  If you go to that website they are talking about the open source code that runs it, which they kept stressing to me when i talked to them.  But their is no hardware on that website, it shows you some diy stuff.

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You may have seen the Lytro camera (https://www.lytro.com/) or perhaps a copycat

goldband said:

You may have seen the Lytro camera (https://www.lytro.com/) or perhaps a copycat

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Yes, that was the one.  The video on their website doesn't do it justice.  It is really pretty cool.  You'll never take an out of focus picture again, or you can decide after you take the picture to put something different in focus than what you originally thought you wanted in focus (like the two smooching in the background on their website video).  How in the world they do it I don't know.  Maybe it takes a bunch of pictures in rapid succession at different focal lengths?  But I kind of doubt it since you wouldn't need the camera to be that crazy shape.  

Wired magazine wrote an article about this camera last year:  http://www.wired.com/reviews/2012/02/lytro-camera/

The Lytro was highly touted on many gadget sites prior to its release but it didn't make nearly the splash I expected.  I think that is partially due to the shear domination of phone cameras now and also likely due to the lack of magnification on the Lytro.  But I agree that the concept is pretty awesome to come back at a later date and fix the focus or add depth of field.  Regardless of the success of Lytro, the tech this is based on will definitely make an impact on photography, which is awesome to think about.
 
David

I was looking into the Lytro at one point, but all of their stuff seemed oriented towards presenting their special multifocus image in an interactive way. So the viewer could play with the focus. Which is cool, but I would more likely want to get a single frame image out of it, with good resolution and fixed focus, and I wasn't confident I could do that without a lot of trouble. But perhaps that's a failure to communicate features on their part, and not a limitation of their software.

It had 2 shortcomings as I saw it.
 
1) Not gonna fit in your pocket
2) No zoom
 
And to a lesser extent, kind of pricey.  
 
I'm not sure the point and shoot photographer is going to buy these up in any great numbers.  Perhaps if they can make it fit in your pocket without looking like your real happy to see me it might do better.  The zoom aspect is probably less important and of course if resolution is high enough, not a problem, just do a digital zoom after the fact (along with your refocusing)
 
Maybe they will find a way to get this into high end cameras.  Certainly a professional wouldn't mind something a little bulkier and the refocusing feature would certainly appeal to professional sport photographer or journalist.