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Engage! Expo – AR, State of the Market

2011-02-20T10:51:44Z

The SlideShare above titled Face Tracking & Face Recognition in AR, is from my presentation at Engage! Expo, at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, on February 16, 2011, as part of the panel, Augmented Reality: The State of the Market. I was also joined by Ori Inbar and Alpay Kasal. The slides can also be downloaded here as a PDF.

ARNY - January 18, 2011

2011-01-23T18:55:48Z

On Tuesday, January 18th, ARNY - Augmented Reality New York held our 13th meetup. In November of last year we lost our regular venue, due to Mark Gorton’s legal woas — OpenPlans is (or was) solely financed by Gorton. OpenPlans continues to operate, but had to bring on tenants. The gorgeous penthouse loft with panoramic skyline views, for which we will be forever grateful to Sophia Parafina, is no longer available to us … so our homeless band of ARgonauts had to find new shelter from the New York winter. Matt Quint found us wandering aimlessly over the ash covered snow dunes of Manhattan. He took us off the streets, gave us warm clothes and two WiFi passwords. We have now taken up new, if temporary residence at a Columbia Business School lecture hall. But enough about our Odyssey, let’s move onto the real story.

At our January meeting, Gene Becker, Augmented Reality Strategist at Layar gave a demonstration of the Hoppala! content management system (CMS) for building AR layers for the Layar Mobile Augmented Reality Browser, without the need for coding. He also shared an augmented reality journalism project created by Stanford University’s Historical Archives.

Artist, Amir Baradaran, previewed the launch of an art intervention with overtones of political activism, launching later this month involving the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Sid Gabriel, a San Francisco augmented reality developer and the organizer of our sister meetup in the bay area, ARdevMob, gave us a preview of how he is using his LightNucleus platform to augment a live dance performance here in New York this week.

Noah Zerkin, who is a technician on NASA-funded neurovestibular research at Mount Sinai Medical Center, as well as data-glove, haptic and fully immersive interfaces research at Integrated Realities, is an expert in augmented reality hardware. He gave us his thoughts on the state of the industry in augmented reality eyewear with a focus on the Raptyr glasses recently unveiled by Vuzix, earlier this month at CES.

You are invited to join our live audience on February 15th. ARNY - Augmented Reality New York meets on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Matt has generously reserved for us the use of his lecture hall for February, so we will again be meeting at Columbia University.

Announcements:

Events:
AR Summit @ Engage Expo! - New York, February 16
GeoWorld Summit - New York, May 12
ARE - Augmented Reality Event - Santa Clara, CA, May 17 & 18
Augmented Reality Summit - London, June 16

Jobs:
Layar - US Distribution Manager - San Francisco Bay Area, Fulltime

CES 2011

2011-01-15T04:03:23Z

This past week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas there was a great deal of fanfare surrounding 3D TVs, and tablets, tablets everywhere but none that you can actually buy. However, this focus on flat screen 3D and Android tablets overshadowed other innovations on display.

My favorite little show stealer was a manufacturer of modular robotic parts (and the software to run them) named RoboBuilder. They have both consumer grade and professional product lines for their modular parts. They are seeking a wholesale partner to bring their consumer product to the US market. Their little guy is very reminiscent of Plen, the Japanese “hobby” Robot famous for skateboarding and roller-skating. While the Japanese have a deep cultural connection and are generally recognized as the world leader in robotic toys, this Korean native just became my favorite new entry into the hobbyist robot market.

Also of note, eyewear made a strong showing at this years convention, particular in award recognition. For instance, Vuzix took honors in the CES Innovation Awards for their Raptyr 3D Augmented Reality glasses. Though I don’t have any video of them to share at this time, stay tuned, Vuzix will be our headlining guest at ARNY - Augmented Reality New York, in February.

Polaroid hit it out of the ballpark. The business arrangement between Lady Gaga and Polaroid was negotiated by Hollywood talent agency, William Morris Endeavor, and Polaroid’s PR Agency, Weber Shandwick. This has proven a stroke of brilliance. The rumors of Polaroid’s death have been greatly exagerated. After the rise of digital photography took their core automatic camera business down in flames, Polaroid has made various attempts at rebirth over the past decade, twice under new ownership and management (and twice filed for bankruptcy). In its current incarnation, PLR IP Holdings has created new value for the brand by developing their own stable of halo products, while leveraging their brand equity with licensing deals to other manufactures. It is a little known fact that Polaroid first made its name in polarized sunglasses (hence the name Polaroid). Their big move back into sunglasses and designer polarized-lens eyewear for 3D TV viewing was very smart; with a legitimate historical connection to the brand. Bringing in Lady Gaga to introduce the brand to a new generation — and giving her a contributing role in their product line beyond mere spokesperson — has been positively brilliant. Polaroid commanded serious mindshare at CES, and their Polarez GL20 Camera Glasses, to be sold under the Polaroid Grey Label and unveiled at CES by Lady Gaga herself, were a show stealer. I’m enthusiastic to see where Polaroid goes from here, they’re going to be an exciting brand to watch.

I would personally like to thank Jon Pollock for giving me a private viewing of the GL20 glasses, where I made the above video, as they were not on display to the public. I would also like to thank Colleen Sarenpa who was so helpful and informative. Thank you both, you’re doing a great job reviving a legendary brand.

If you find that Lady Gaga’s video glasses need some complimentary trousers to complete your cyborg wardrobe, you can go for Cyberdyne’s HAL exoskeleton. CES saw this Japanese firm’s first exhibit here in the states. Though the torso component (not shown in the video) enables the wearer to effortlessly lift many times their own weight, the legs are principally being marketed as a mobility option for the handicapped (I cobbled together my video from the glimpses I was able to snatch when Spike TV showed up. I was actually the only person there at Cyberdyne’s booth when Spike unexpectedly arrived. A crowd formed rather instantly. I’ve tried to find Spike’s coverage of this, but it appears they never published it to their website. Perhaps it ran on their cable station).

I must concede that my poor video does not do Arial Burton’s technology justice. The glass enclosure is not needed, but I believe it is a safety issue (don’t want to blind anyone with a laser). The device uses a focused laser in such a way that it naturally terminates in a “plasma spark” in midair. This plasma spark creates the “pixel” in the air. This will be an interesting technology to keep an eye on. They’ve more than tripled the resolution in the last year, and will likely do it again next year. They also tell me that they plan to launch a full color version “soon.”

Of the various video goggles on display at CES, the Recon goggles made for snow-sports were the most practical. Giving a heads-up view of important statistics while barreling downhill, they aim to introduce models catering to other goggle and helmet wearing sports over the course of the next year. Their execution is well thought out, their build quality in solid, and they are delivering on a genuine desire in the market for a quality device to deliver location based data while moving downhill. This information may all already be present in a user’s smartphone, but that is not a form factor with practical application in the context of a downhill run.

I would also like to thank Chris Brogan for inviting me to be interviewed, and discussing my new role at Humble. When the interview has been published, I will be sure to share it.

Sid Gabriel Hubbard

2010-12-15T13:42:07Z

A video conference interview with Sid Gabriel Hubbard.

Sid Gabriel Hubbard is a San Francisco based augmented reality software developer, and organizer of ARDevMob, the largest of three Bay Area AR meetup groups. He also practices Tai Chi.

You can hack it.

2010-11-27T09:43:55Z

Microsoft has a hit on its hands. From Israeli military hardware to Microsoft game controller to … to whatever you can get away with. The XBox 360 Kinect is a hit. When Adafruit announced a cash reward to the first person to write an open source driver for the Kinect, the Microsoft legal department kicked in, issuing a statement to CNet:

Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products. With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant.

But cooler heads prevailed, and only days later the company took an about face. In an interview with Ira Flatow on NPR’s Science Friday, Director of Incubation, Alex Kipman, XBox, Microsoft, said the Kinect was left open “by design.” When asked if anyone would get in trouble with Microsoft for developing for Kinect outside of the XBox platform he replied with an emphatic:

Nope.
Absolutely not.

For whatever the spin, Kipman went on to express his and Microsoft’s support for the enthusiastic embrace the Kinect has received from the open-source development community.

The sheer velocity that community has sprung up around hacking the Kinect far surpass even that which grew around the Wii, which was impressive in its own right. In less than 10 days Hector Martin claimed the prize from Adafruit, writing an open-source driver for the Kinect. In that same time Microsoft sold 1 million units!

Once the driver was in place, it was quickly ported to other platforms. Linux, Windows and Mac OS X can all run the device – Whether it is a full body controller for Mario, or an augmented reality overlay for your lightsaber, nearly every day someone comes up with something new. I’ve collected a few of my favorites here:

On the artistic side, Robert Hodgin, splits himself …

… and Atsushi Tadokoro frames himself …

… while Henry Chu boxes himself …

Some of the more technical demo hacks are also well worth checking out, Dustin O’Connor hacks multi-touch with virtual objects …

The Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT Media Lab wrote a browser plug-in that allows any webpage to receive input via the Kinect …

While the ever ambitious Oliver Kreylos is just getting started — combining 3D glasses, a Kinect camera and a Wii, he has built a 3D virtual world that he uses to contruct molecules, atom by atom …

What I’m axiously awaiting is the hack that will run several Kinect Cameras in unison. The way the device works, it projects a grid of infrared dots into its field of view, one camera reads the grid to determine depth, and another camera reads color. With several Kinect devices one could map a larger area, including the “back face” so that objects and environments could be understood in-the-round. This device has potential beyond any single one of our imaginations. It’s a powerful new tool we have in the inventory of affordable augmented reality, virtual reality, human-computer interface devices. This is going to be very very big for Microsoft. Far beyond a mere game controller, this is a game changer.

For those of us following Project Natal, this launch has been the long wait — Going from research project to shipped product, the device became Kinect, and it’s living up to its anticipation. Below, a pre-release demo played by Felicia Day shows the technology in its native habitat:

ARNY - October 19, 2010

2010-11-14T22:33:42Z

ARNY - Augmented Reality New York:
Meets on the third Tuesday of every month.

The Video Above is of last months ARNY Meetup, held at AOL Ventures on Tuesday, October 19, 2010. Hosted by Ori Inbar of Ogmento, and video streamed by Chris Grayson of GigantiCo. This Meetup was held in conjunction with the NY Gaming Meetup, organized by Brad Hargreaves. With presentations by Chas Mastin & Brian Sampson of Whistlebox; Steve Fiener & Ohan Oda of Columbia University; and Patrick O’Shaughnessey with a demostration of the AR Drone.

Our November 16 Meeting is Full:
ARNY - Augmented Reality New York, Nov. 16, 2010

Watch LIVE Streaming Video at:
Video Stream begins at 7:30 EST, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010

Howard Bloom for Humanity+ Board

2010-08-09T08:06:51Z

GigantiCo endorses Howard Bloom for the board of Humanity+.

In the interim board elections of Humanity+, taking place this month, I have nominated Howard Bloom to one of the open board seats. Last week he accepted the nomination. Voting will ocur in a Humanity+ Yahoo! Group accessible by members, set up for this purpose.

At The Humanity+ Summit held at Harvard in June, Robert Tercek presented, “What Geeks Can Learn from Gurus,” that struck a chord and I would argue, became the central takeaway for most members from the Summit — Something quietly acknowledged but rarely addressed — Transhumanism has a Public Relations problem.

This is where Howard comes in.

For those who may not be familiar, let me give a brief account of Howard’s backstory.

Many may know Howard as a writer (Humanity+ board secretary, Joel Pitt, has informed me that Howard’s Global Brain was a “great inspiration” to him when he was studying at University.). His books include:

The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
“Readers will be mesmerized by the mirror Bloom holds to the human condition, and dumbfounded by the fusillade of eclectic data that arrives with the swiftness and intensity of a furious tennis volley. His style is effortless, engaging, witty and brisk… He draws on a dozen years of research into a jungle of scholarly fields… and meticulously supports every bit of information.” — Washington Post
“Howard Bloom’s book is an epoch-making and culture-defining treatise. It is destined to be the Future Shock of our time.” — Bob Guccione, Jr., SPIN

Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
“While cyber-thinkers claim the Internet is bringing us toward some sort of worldwide mind, Bloom believes we’ve had one all along. Drawing on information theory, debates within evolutionary biology, and research psychology (among other disciplines), Bloom understands the development of life on Earth as a series of achievements in collective information processing.” — Publishers Weekly

The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism
“Capitalism de- and reconstructed—capitalism with a heart—and brain: Howard Bloom’s new book marshals his vast knowledge of history, deep cultural experience and broad scientific understanding to argue for a new way. Ever since I sent away for a marketing book in the eighties whose major advice was how much money you could make marketing marketing books, I was skeptical. But marketing genius Howard Bloom may have written the greatest marketing book ever—one that puts capitalism in its cosmic context.” — Dorion Sagan (American science writer)

Howard has also been published in periodicals including WIRED Magazine, OMNI Magazine, New Ideas in Psychology, EnlightenNext Magazine, The Village Voice and many others.

Howard is the founder of the The Space Development Steering Committee, who’s members include Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 Astronaut; Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut; Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center, among others. He is a member of The New York Academy of Sciences, The National Association for the Advancement of Science, The American Psychological Society, The Academy of Political Science and The Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

His qualifications for a board seat are without question. What sets Howard apart are his years in the private sector — specifically his career in Public Relations.

Howard has lead a colorful and multifaceted career. After youthful success in the music business, in 1976 he founded The Howard Bloom Organization, Ltd. a public relations firm that represented such artists as Prince, Bob Marley, Bette Midler, Billy Joel, Billy Idol, Peter Gabriel, David Byrne, Simon & Garfunkel, Queen, KISS, Aerosmith, AC/DC, John Mellencamp, Run DMC and on and on and on. At its peak, The Howard Bloom Organization was the largest public relations firm in the recording industry.

Howard did not solicit for this position. When I first approached him about being nominated, his response was sincerely humble. He expressed what an enormous honor it was to be considered for the Humanity+ board.

Howard’s background brings unique talents to the table of precisely the kind that the organization needs to shape its message.

I encourage other members to support his nomination. If you do decide to support his candidacy, please tell others — perhaps consider sharing this article on Twitter or Facebook.

Registration in Mobile AR

2010-06-24T13:04:02Z

Last week, at the first meeting held by ARNY - Augmented Reality New York, since this month’s are2010, Augmented Reality Event, I gave a talk dedicated to a tech trend that is emerging in mobile AR registration. It is based on the talk I gave at are2010, but focused specifically on the technology portion of the presentation.

Steven Feiner (see episode 1 of AR & Emerging Tech), whom we are so fortunate to have as a member of our organization — based on hands-on access to the PTAM source code and many years of experience as a pioneer in the AR space — expressed his opinion that this kind of registration will not be available for many more years. Not only is our organization fortunate to have Steve as a participant, but I’ve personally been fortunate to have him available to me as I fleshed out the ideas in this very presentation, so I find myself in the rare position of disagreeing with Steve. There are several reasons I feel this specific form of AR technology is going to come to market within the next 6 to 8 months (or less). I’ll give three here:

1.) The release of Apple iOS 4, and more specifically, the iOS 4 SDK (Software Developer Kit) has made public what were previously private APIs, now available to developers. This means that there is: A.) a capable consumer hardware platform with significant user-base. B.) With an infrastructure in place to monetize it (App Store).

2.) Between Google and Microsoft, and several other smaller players, we now have an extensive portion of the world, especially urban areas, mapped. So the reference mapping is now in place.

3.) The incentive for 3rd party software developers to crack this quickly is immense. The competition to bring this to market is fierce. The reward, huge. Several players in the space including Earthmine (who has released an SDK for incorporating their tech into iPhone apps), Tanagram (who have filed recent patents and claim they’ve solved it), Wikitude (who recently released computer vision based Wikitude Drive for the Android, and are partnering on Mobile AR work with IBM… possible acquisition?), Metaio (recently released mobile feature tracking Junaio Glue) are all hustling to bring computer-vision into the mobile space, and Earthmine and Tanagram are both pursuing this very form of computer-vision-to-mirror-world implementation of mobile AR registration.

No doubt many other upstarts are working furiously in garages around the world — the first to pull this off for the iPhone will stand to make a lot of money. This is no longer a competition between universities at academic conferences. This is now being driven by market forces and financial incentive. As of two days ago (the release of iOS 4), the hardware to support it is widely available and the APIs are accessible.

I believe we are on the cusp, with implementations of this sort on the immediate horizon, in months not years. Even if Steve disagrees with my timeline, I’m sure he secretly hopes I’m right.

H+ Summit @ Harvard

2010-06-14T06:56:40Z

Due to a schedule conflict I was unable to attend the Humanity+ Summit in person. Thankfully it was live streamed. I’ve included Ray Kurzweil’s Keynote here:

Ray, often in the spotlight these days, was even more visible than usual this weekend, with a multi-page story in the New York Times on Friday, as well as a brief bio at #62 in Fast Company’s list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business.

While Ray (and fellow Keynote Speakers, Stephen Wolfram & Aubrey de Grey) may have drawn the crowds, it was a talk by Robert Tercek — President, Digital Media, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network — that struck a nerve with me and, I think, many others as well. So I’ve included video of his talk below, as well as the slides from his presentation. While most of the speakers were intelligent and insightful, it was also well trodden ground for those active in this community. Ray is a great lecturer however, in this venue, he was inevitably preaching to the choir (with all the religious baggage that statement carries).

My thoughts: To get traction, respect and most importantly goodwill beyond the inner-circle, the transhumanist/singulatarian community needs not only to put thought into these things, but action behind them. Renaming the organization Humanity+ (previously The World Transhumanist Association) was a big step in the right direction. But this is only superficial if it is not backed up with action. I have had some recent dialog with our Executive Director, Alex Lightman, regarding this matter. There is some intellectual discomfort by some in the movement with the fact that much of the research done in Transhumanist studies (nano-bio-info-cog) has been financed by the U.S. military. Patrick Lin’s lecture at the summit addressed some of these issues. But not all of this research has been focused on waging war. In recent years, a great deal of research financed by the U.S. Military has funded next-generation robotic prosthetics, artificial eyes, and other medical applications related to body/machine and brain/machine interfaces. This is due to the large number of disabled veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — While battlefield casualties have dropped astoundingly since the days of World War II and even Vietnam, this is largely due to medical advances that have allowed more soldiers to survive wounds that in prior conflicts would have been fatal. The number of returning disabled veterans has risen at a rate near proportional to that which war related deaths have declined. This has left us with a very large number of disabled veterans from the past decade’s military conflicts. Consequently, the military has been investing heavily in human/machine interface technologies to improve the mobility and overall quality of life of these veterans. I have been espousing the position that Humanity+ should be looking for opportunities to get involved in veterans affairs. Whatever one’s position on any given conflict may be, we are the benefactors of this research, and these veterans have paid a very heavy price in order to be the guinea pigs for this research. Today’s American veterans are indeed humanity’s first true cyborgs. What form this involvement should take has not yet taken shape, but I have been in some informal dialog with Doug Thompson of Remedy Communications, to see if there isn’t a place for Humanity+ to either be involved in their efforts, or at least to advise us on where our community’s strengths could best be leveraged in assisting veterans. If Humanity+ is to be an organization that lives up to its name, this would be a very noble start.

There were many other excellent speakers including Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari; Andrew Hessel, Co-Chair of Singularity University; and noted futurists like Natasha Vita-More, Ben Goertzel and John Smart… and one of my personal favorites, Patrick Hopkins, the spoiler, on why mind “uploading” will not work as life extension.

An announcement worth noting: during Hank Hyena’s excellent talk, Alex interjected to inform everyone that H+ Magazine, which had previously been sold to Better Humans and was recently put back up for sale, has now been reacquired by Humanity+ where it will be put immediately back into publication. Many readers may have never known it was shut down, save for a recent letter posted to the editor’s blog. The website was kept live, but as a contributing writer (1|2), R.U. has kept myself and other contributors in the loop on things going on behind the scenes to try and secure a new buyer. I am very pleased to know that H+ Magazine has survived the ordeal.

Thanks to David Orban, Chairman; and Alex Lightman, Executive Director of Humanity+ for making this event happen. Also a special thanks to Kevin Jain whom I am told was instrumental at securing Harvard as the venue for the event.

Ray Kurzweil, June 24, NYC
Ray Kurzweil will be speaking in New York City on June 24th, at the New York film premier of his movie, The Singularity is Near, based on his best selling book of the same name — The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.

Presented by the WTN Imagined Worlds Film Series, in association with TIME Magazine. Advanced ticket sales are available online for $35, or $55 at the door. Time & Life Building, 1271 Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) between West 50th & West 51st Streets. See Map.

Disclosure: I am both a dues-paying member of Humanity+
and a contributing writer to h+ Magazine.

Gadget: Sony MHS-PM5

2010-06-12T07:51:13Z

This is far from a full-on review. More like an acknowledgement of participation by the newest tool in my arsenal of gadgets. All of my video from Augmented Reality Event (ARE 2010) was shot with my new Sony HD Bloggie MHS-PM5. While much of it was shot hand-held, I also brought along a Manfrotto 709BR Digi tripod. Originally bought to use with a 3M MPro120 pico projector, I had it with me to practice my presentation in my hotel room, and realized it could do double-duty (shown in the photo above).

I debated for a while whether to go with the CM5 or the PM5. It largely came down to a debate over compact-convenience vs optical zoom. I ultimately decided that I would get more use out of the PM5, being smaller and able to comfortably toss in my pocket without carrying a bag. Of course, there is always the possibility that it will be made instantly obsolete when I get the new iPhone 4, but it served its purpose for ARE and I’m certain to get more use out of it (Hey, it could be my iPhone camera’s #2. Power to the people.).

The mini-tripod combo worked well. In some presentations, I was able to get a desk seat, set up the camera on the tripod, and then not have to pay much attention to it (while, for instance, I geeked out live tweeting).

Extreme ease of use, I bought it only a day before my travel to Santa Clara, and did not take the time to experiment with it even once, for even a second until the moment I went to use it in the field for the first time. After leaving it on the charger over night, the following morning I turned it on for the first time mere moments before recording my first video, and knew intuitively exactly how to use it. It gets an A+ in ease of use.

There is one serious limitation to this device that any potential buyer must be aware of in advance: It can only record 29-minutes at a time. Even with a 16G SanDisk, which could hold several hours of video, it won’t record beyond the 29 minutes. You can record many multiple files of less than 29-minutes each, and you can begin recording another clip just seconds after saving the prior one, but 29-minutes is the time limit. The salesman at B&H explained to me that it had to do with EU import regulations — there are apparently extra import taxes on video recorders that can be avoided by being sold as a “still camera”. In the EU, if the device records for 30 minutes or longer, it is considered a video camera, but if it takes pictures and also video clips of less-than 30 minutes, it is designated as a “still camera” with a video “feature”. And Sony apparently wanted to avoid EU tariffs, but didn’t want to make a separate model just for the US market. Anyway, that was the story I was told at B&H. The reason this matters, besides being an annoying, arbitrarily imposed limitation, is that I once lost track of time, and let it run longer than 30 minutes (while recording Blaise Aguera y Arcas’s Keynote), and the device froze-up. Worse than that, the video file was corrupted, so I didn’t even get to keep the first 29 minutes. This was further disappointing because I was told explicitly that, if it reached the 30-minute limitation, that the device would just save the file and stop recording. In other words, that is simply would not do precisely what it did.

In the grander scheme of things, I think the situations where I will record more that 30-minutes continuously are exceedingly rare, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt… for now.

While certainly not the quality of an optical zoom, the digital zoom performed better than expected, especially at full 4x zoom (where my expectations were very low). And when used with no zoom, the image quality was quite crisp. The steady-cam feature also worked better than my expectations, when used handheld.

Another nice selling point is the ability to flip the camera lens back towards you. This means you can record interviews, keeping yourself in the frame, and still see the video playback screen for composition.

I almost forgot to mention the battery life. Amazing! I forgot to get a spare battery when I purchased the device, so I tried to get one at JFK on my way out. No luck. No luck at the San Francisco airport, when I arrived, either. I was very concerned that I would run out of battery life, and be left without the use of my device for the second half of each day. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. Not only did the charge last all day long, the battery indicator never dropped below “fully charged”. I did put it back on the charger for the night, for the second day of the event, but still. It has now been a full week since I returned, and I have yet to see it indicate anything but a fully charged battery. Amazing battery life.

As the cheesy marketing name suggests, the “Bloggie” is marketed to bloggers such as myself. While the 29 minute record limit (and especially so, the corrupted file) were a big disappointment, I can still recommend the camera, based on its other features, so long as buyers are made well aware of this limitation going into the purchase. I really am the ideal target for such a product. As I aim to incorporate more-and-more video here at GigantiCo.tv, I expect I will get a lot more use out of the device. Perhaps I may come back and add my own comment to this post, after I’ve put it through the paces for a few months.

Oh, and as for the Manfrotto tripod — love it. Great ball-joint mounting head, sturdy, well made. Small enough to fold up and stick in your back pocket. Pretty sleek industrial design, too.

Disclosure: All product links include my Amazon affiliate tag.