What invention do you need?

[joerason]

Hey all,

I'm in a program at the University of Texas that focuses on bringing new technology to the market. For a current project, I'm trying to find problems people have that could be solved with technology or some kind of new invention. My mind went to videography since it's a hobby of mine, and I wanted to see if you guys have issues in videography that you'd like to see solved.

What annoys you about videography? What would you like to see get fixed? What work arounds do you have that could be simplified?

If you all could offer any feedback, I'd appreciate it. Whether it's small (always forgetting tripod shoes) or big, I'd be interested to see what common problems might be out there.

 

[atarijedi]

Large format global shutter video cameras. 4/3" sensor or larger. Also, 3 cmos (one for each colour) large format cameras, global shutter of course.

 

[Paul F]

Reduction of noise in low light.
Better dynamic range for sensors.

 

[mcbob]

A variable-size image sensor to adapt to lens and field depth characteristics from S35 to 1/3"

 

[Batutta]

Better audio recording...I really feel like microphone technology needs a paradigm change, someone to rethink from the ground up. Compared to the complexity and capability of the human ear, microphones are shockingly crude and inaccurate. I suppose the same could be said of the human eye as it relates to cameras, but I feel there is more progress happening on that front every day. Audio is kind of ignored and been stagnant for years without major innovation.

 

[David W. Richardson]

Mine is pretty simple...

I want a column-type camera lift. Works like a crane, but without the long arms in front of and behind the stand or mount. Consists of a central column -- could be pneumatic or geared, but must be highly controllable, super quiet and super smooth. It should mount to -- but not on TOP of -- a stand in such a way that the column itself reaches from floor to ceiling in a typical room. It has a camera platform that works the same way as on a standard jib arm.

It would be awesome if this thing could be run with a motor and gears, and infinitely controlled via a cabled (or wireless) remote. Maybe that remote could also be programmable, so the thing could repeat the exact same movements and timing multiple times. That would be great!


This thing would be useful for getting crane-type movement shots indoors in tight areas. I've looked, but haven't seen anything out there like it. Maybe it's there and I've just missed it.

 

[nosys70]

well all descriptions here are for need that do not require an invention. Everything already exist, you just need money to get it work or simply purchase it.
the problem is more to determine if you want to build a specific device with known technology to answer a specific need, or to to bring a new technology that
would eventually bring new needs at the same time it would fix some other ones.

ultra low light sensor ,autofocus (laser beam, ultra sound, sensor detection, finger on screen, eye on EVF, peaking) , autoiris , HDR, face detection (even smile detection) , stabilising sytems (lens , sensor, camera) , 3D, panoramic, tracking (visual or audio), flying camera (ball, copters, planes, cable, blimp), nano camera, GPS, remote monitoring on smartphone,
high speed image, after shot focus, 360video, timelapse, high resolution etc. retro-capture, loop capture, dual capture....
well actually, the best thing i see would be a camera able to help people to shot good pictures by showing on screen where it goes bad (to much air over that head, backlight here, over exposed there, zoom a bit please, like GPS are.)

I would see some protocol that can be shared between several cameras (like position of cameras using compass and GPS, settings) so a computer could manage to drive several cameras to track a scene , manage camera movement with motorized tripod head.
or add metadata from a face recording feature, so you can get video tagged with name of known people.
I mean , if you create something like the internet , but for camera, you can imagine that cameras can talk together to share data
or act together, or record invisibly in the picture a lot of data that can be used. Like a SMPTE code on steroid.

 

[agcohn]

I want a 3D video system that more closely follows how I perceive human vision to work. I want the system to track where my eyes are looking at the screen & what objects I am looking at, and then the system would change the focus / depth of the field of the scene to reflect where my eyes are looking.