Olympus rolls out PC app that turns some of its cameras into webcams

https://www.engadget.com/olympus-webcam-app-for-pc-180019053.html

Olympus may be selling its camera business — to the same company that bought Sony’s VAIO PC division — but it’s not abandoning its products just yet. It has just released a new beta application called OM-D Webcam, which gives Olympus cameras webcam capabilities for livestreaming or video chats when attached to a PC via their USB-C tether. While the application definitely sounds useful in an era of Zoom work conferences and online classes, not all Olympus users will be able to take advantage of it.

To start with, it only works with Windows PCs, and it’s unclear if a macOS version will be available. Also, it’s only compatible with a handful of cameras at the moment. The software’s current version supports OM-D E-M1X, OM-D E-M1, OM-D E-M1 Mark II, OM-D E-M1 Mark III and OM-D E-M5 Mark II. Further, it doesn’t allow sound to pass through from the camera to the computer, which means users need to use their PCs’ internal mic or a USB mic.

Olympus isn’t the only camera brand that has rolled out software to make its products more useful in the midst of a pandemic. Canon launched its own app that turns DSLRs, mirrorless cameras and point-and-shoots into USB webcams for Windows 10 users back in April. And in early June, Panasonic introduced the Lumix Tether for Streaming to turn the GH5 and GH5S, as well as the G9 and S1 series cameras into webcams.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

July 3, 2020 at 01:03PM

Harvard’s transforming robotic fabric could lead to therapeutic wearables

https://www.engadget.com/harvard-robotic-fabric-therapeutic-wearables-150108871.html

Robotic fabrics or textiles are far from new, but they’re usually attached to bulky external machines that can modulate air pressure inside them to make them move or change their shape. Since that could limit their potential applications, a team of Harvard researchers got together to develop a textile-based soft robot that can regulate itself without being tethered to any machine.

The researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology come from various disciplines. They designed a robotic fabric called Smart Thermally Actuating Textiles (STATs), which is composed of tightly sealed pouches containing a fluid known as Novec 7000. When heated, the fluid vaporizes, and its volume expands up to 100-fold to change the fabric’s shape. But when it’s cooled, it condenses back to a liquid, thereby deflating the fabric.

To eliminate the need for an external machine, they weaved electronically-conductive silver-plated threads into the material they used for the STATs. The threads serve as the smart fabric’s heater and sensor elements, enabling the temperature and pressure changes needed to switch Novec 7000’s phase from liquid to vapor and vice versa. The study’s co-first author, Christopher Payne, explained:

“With an integrated ‘closed-loop feedback’ controller, STATs autonomously maintained their pressure even when placed into environments in which the exterior temperature fluctuates, like close to an air tube that actively cools the system.”

The researchers said they can manufacture the fabric in bulk and with arbitrary geometries, giving it a wide number of potential applications. It could be used in mechanotherapeutic wearables that could apply pressure on injuries and accelerate tissue repair, for instance. It could also be used in responsive cushions to help prevent bed and wheelchair sores, and perhaps even in the creation of dynamic garments for avant-garde fashion shows.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

July 3, 2020 at 02:09PM