Digital Lifescapes

More organizations are exploring machine vision use cases. Machine vision combines hardware and software to provide operational guidance to devices in the execution of their functions based on the capture and processing of images. Machine vision is rapidly becoming an enabling technology for emerging automation requirements in automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation, and logistics applications. The total revenue of machine vision technology in the seven major global markets is expected to reach $36 billion by 2027 -- that's up from $21.4 billion in 2022. This growth translates to a CAGR of 11 percent, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Machine Vision Market Development Traditionally, machine vision was primarily focused on surveillance and security, asset monitoring, and defect inspection. These mature applications continue to drive the main bulk of total camera shipments within the enterprise market. However, ...

Savvy CIOs and CTOs in the the retail sector have embraced new technologies that enable them to evolve their business models -- both in-store and online. In particular, automation applications that improve productivity are likely to receive significant IT investment. Artificial Intelligence (AI), computer vision and robotics will ultimately enable retailers across the globe to provide improved customer experiences, streamline legacy business processes, and increase diminishing profit margins. Smart Retail Tech Market Development Brick and mortar retailers can, therefore, improve their chances of remaining competitive if they employ these technologies correctly, prioritizing long-term investment over short-sighted strategies, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. "The high-cost barrier associated with AI, computer vision and robotics will ultimately be overcome by the potential for these technologies to offset the inherent disadvantages facing phy...

People everywhere are saving much more multimedia data in online storage services, and more users are forecast to add to this phenomenon. The active accounts associated with personal cloud storage services will exceed 1 billion at the end of 2013 -- that's nearly twice as many as a year ago, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Over the next five years the global account base will more than triple, reaching 3.61 billion by the end of 2018. In the meantime, the aggregated data storage utilized by personal cloud services is expected to increase from 685 petabytes in 2013 to an incredible 3,520 petabytes in 2018. "Various factors are contributing to the rapidly increasing personal cloud uptake -- including the consumerization of enterprise IT and multiple device ownership. For storage needs, the most far-reaching driver is the expansion and improvement of camera technologies," said Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI Research . In particular, digital...

Almost every smartphone shipped today has an embedded rear camera and one in three smartphones have a front-facing camera, according to the findings from the latest market study by ABI Research. The number of media tablets with two cameras is even greater. People that buy these devices expect to be able to take reasonable quality photos with their smartphone or tablet -- and the popularity of video calling is driving the integration of front-facing cameras. ABI Research believes that one billion cameras were shipped in smartphones and tablets in 2012. Apart from Nokia’s PureView 808, the majority of smartphone releases in 2012 have kept camera resolution around 8 megapixels. Instead, mobile OEMs have looked into new features such as autofocus, rapid capture mode, best picture, and better image captures for low light environments. "Advancements in imaging technology are opening new doors for smartphones and media tablets," says Josh Flood, senior analyst at ABI Resea...

As the CES 2013 event in Las Vegas approaches, let's consider the overall market impact from technology innovations and new product launches. Meaning, that for every positive advancement in a new product category there is often a negative result in another category. As an example, prior product enhancements made to smartphones -- and now media tablets -- continue to take market share away from other portable consumer electronic (CE) devices. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, annual shipments of handheld game players are expected to decline by at least 4 percent year-over-year (YoY) -- with the North American market experiencing a fall of nearly 13 percent. In the digital camera market, shipments are expected to decline by over 11 percent YoY worldwide and nearly 20 percent in the North American market. New devices like Sony’s 3G Vita and Samsung’s Galaxy Camera are trying to bridge the divide between portable CE devices and cellular-enabled mobile device...

The media tablet and digital camera markets are forecast to be the next high growth driver for location based services (LBS) and global positioning system (GPS) integrated circuits (ICs) -- despite the relatively slow growth to date. The latest market study by ABI Research resulted in an updated forecast for the evolving application of LBS and how it will affect the adoption of location-related technologies. So far, the tablet market has been somewhat led by Apple and its GPS/Modem strategy. GPS shipments are forecast to reach 37 million in 2012, yet that is still much less than had been previously anticipated. There has been mixed progress of late, with the launch of the Google Nexus 7 and the Apple iPad mini. Wi-Fi location technology is a standard feature across all media tablets. But while it is complementary, it does sometimes act as a barrier to GPS integration. "When we look at the adoption of applications on tablets, it is forecast to largely mirror that of smartph...

According to the latest market study by ABI Research, by the end of 2012, almost 20 percent of annual smartphone shipments will include facial recognition capabilities to enhance the user experience. Five years from now, shipments of smartphones and media tablets with the new technology embedded will increase to 665 million annually. Currently, only Google Android (Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean) mobile operating systems support the facial recognition capability in significant volumes. The Samsung Galaxy SIII is one of the most notable smartphones to feature the facial recognition technology. However, ABI believes that over the next two to three years, many more software operating systems and mobile OEMs will incorporate the technology. Facial recognition has been on the mobile device manufacturer technology radar for some time. It was developed in the 1960s by three scientists: Woody Bledsoe, Helen Chan Wolf, and Charles Bisson. Historically, the major challenge for the ...

In the near future, gesture recognition technology will routinely add yet another dimension to human interactions with consumer electronic devices -- such as PCs, media tablets and smartphones. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , they now forecast that 600 million smartphones will be shipped with vision-based gesture recognition features in 2017. "Gesture recognition is a very exciting prospect, particularly for smartphones and tablets," says ABI Research senior analyst Josh Flood. Camera-based tracking for gesture recognition has actually been in use for some time. Leading video game consoles -- Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation -- both have gesture recognition built-in; known as Kinect and PlayStation Eye respectively. These devices are in their seventh and eighth generation. However, several challenges remain for gesture recognition technology for mobile devices, including effectiveness of the technology in adverse light conditions, vari...

The implementation of 3D on mobile devices, such as smartphones and media tablets, is still in its infancy and requires a much more advanced technical solution for both viewing 3D and capturing 3D. However, the tremendous size of the mobile applications and entertainment market is driving the industry to overcome some of the current technical limitations. 3D displays are still evolving, while image sensors are benefiting from a TAM that is likely to triple by 2015, and the processing solutions are already on a roadmap that will support the increasing demands of 3D. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , the total number of 3D mobile devices will surpass 148 million units in 2015. "Despite the advances in the technology, adoption of 3D in mobile devices is still likely to be relatively slow due to limitations in content, the potential of eye strain and headaches from viewing 3D content by some, and the additional cost for 3D content and devices," says Jim Mc...

Applications for digital imagery are experiencing exponential growth. Image sensors are now being integrated into all sorts of consumer electronics (CE) devices. As personal video communication becomes more commonplace, many mobile devices -- such as smartphones and media tablets -- will now include two sensors (one on the front and back of the device). The Camera Serial Interface (CSI) is a serial interface between a digital camera module and mobile device platform. Adopting a set of standard hardware interfaces will help to produce peripheral hardware products from multiple vendors which work seamlessly with numerous integrated circuit processor and system-on-a-chip products. MIPI Alliance (a non-profit corporation) efforts have led to strong MIPI CSI-2 interest, across all computing and consumer electronic devices with an image sensor. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , they have forecast that the overall CSI total addressable market (TAM) will surpass $3.5 billio...

ABI Research surveyed 2024 people in the United States about the consumer electronic (CE) products already in their households (device types and quantity), home networking, and purchase intent (device type, brand, and features critical to the purchase decision). The results of their latest market study are insightful -- regarding the key trends that are shaping the evolving CE marketplace in America. Among the significant top-line results, 24 percent of the respondents indicated that their highest-priority purchases over the next six months would likely be of HDTVs (24 percent) and Blu-ray players (17 percent). About 60 percent of the households surveyed said they already have one HDTV. According to ABI senior analyst Michael Inouye, "As consumers replace older TVs, there really isn't much choice now but to buy an HDTV, so even if the consumer doesn't necessarily want to view HDTV content, that's usually what they end up with. Prices for HDTVs have fallen quite...

The global digital still camera (DSC) market began to recover in 2010 after a significant downturn in 2009, primarily caused by worldwide economic conditions and the increased strength of the Japanese Yen. DSC unit sales are expected to rise faster between 2011 and 2012, and then continue a steady growth rate over the forecast period -- fueling worldwide revenue to approximately $43.5 billion by 2015, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "The DSC market will continue to evolve over the next five years. Semiconductor vendors have a renewed opportunity to address these new demands by supplying solutions to DSC manufacturers looking to differentiate from the competition," says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst at In-Stat. There's been new progress on the following features: sensitivity, image quality, and video functions. Compact DSC revenue will remain relatively flat over the forecast period. However, the technology will continue to improve due to the a...

Results from a new market study suggest that there are 3.5 billion digital cameras in use across the globe -- and in excess of one trillion personal digital photos stored on PC hard-drives, portable devices and online in the Cloud. However, during the time between a camera is purchased and the owner buys a photo-finished product or uploads a photo to a social networking website, that active camera usage can be difficult to define and quantify. Futuresource Consulting conducted a recent market study of photo-sharing habits in the UK, Germany and France. Their study focused on the images that ultimately have a high personal value to the consumer: those that are actively shared, as opposed to the billions that remain dormant on computer hard drives or memory cards. Survey questions were also included to pinpoint the features that consumers will look for in their next digital camera. The use case study revealed that people are embracing many new ways to share their personal photos...

The global mobile phone market is now a significant opportunity for many consumer technology companies, shipping in the billions of units every year. So, it makes sense that the HDMI audio/video interface chip manufacturers would pursue it. HDMI on mobile phones enables advanced media-centric applications -- especially HD-enabled camera phones -- to connect to HD video displays, including HDMI-enabled digital television sets. That said, any video that can be seen on the phone can easily be viewed on a TV -- including streamed OTT pay-TV content. For the first time, the number of mobile phones with HDMI ports will ship in excess of a million units in 2010, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Meanwhile, the HDMI interface has become pervasive in all consumer electronics, accounting for over 350 million devices shipping in 2010. "The emergence of phones that can capture 720p HD video has helped HDMI gain penetration over the last year," says Brian O'Rou...

USB connectivity has been extremely successful in the digital still camera and digital camcorder markets. Most people want to use it to transfer images to PCs, to store video recordings, or to print their pictures. As picture file sizes increase with digital camera image resolution, and as camcorders move from standard-definition (SD) to high-definition (HD), the desirability of SuperSpeed USB becomes even more apparent, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . As a result, adoption of SuperSpeed USB into digital cameras and camcorders will be much more rapid than other CE device segments -- with penetration levels reaching 50 and 60 percent respectively, by 2014. "SuperSpeed USB can move 25GB of data in 70 seconds, the same amount of data would take nearly 14 minutes using high-speed USB,” says Brian O’Rourke, Principal Analyst. This dramatic leap in download times makes the adoption of SuperSpeed USB into digital camcorders and cameras a natural migration. In-st...

The ongoing shift to high-definition (HD) video content, from standard-definition (SD), has gained new momentum as the price of low-end HD camcorders continues to decline. The market development from HD video resolution professional-grade to advanced prosumer and then to mainstream consumer devices has been swift. There are several HD Video formats , which are used for video capture and for online video streaming applications. One thing that all HD formats seem to have in common, they create significantly larger file sizes than the prior SD formats. As you capture more video in HD or acquire stock video for your multimedia projects, you'll quickly discover the need for more hard drive capacity. As an example, it takes about 13GB of memory to store one hour of standard definition (DV) video and 40GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video. File sizes can vary depending on the video codec and bit rate options. Also, whether you store and edit in native (uncompressed) forma...

The introduction of SuperSpeed USB devices in 2009 provided the seeds of dramatic change in the USB market, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . SuperSpeed USB, which offers a ten-fold bandwidth improvement over high-speed USB, will grow to just under 30 percent of the USB interface technology market by 2014, according to In-Stat forecasts. The success of SuperSpeed USB will be limited initially, however. "It will take time for SuperSpeed USB to be integrated into the core logic PC chipset," says Brian O'Rourke, In-Stat analyst. USB achieved its immense success primarily due to core logic integration, which effectively allowed PC OEMs to offer it for free. Integration is essential before a new USB standard becomes prominent in PCs. In-Stat's latest market study found the following: - More than 3 billion USB-enabled devices shipped in 2009; over 4 billion will ship in 2012. - Nearly 160 million digital TV sets will ship with USB in 2014. - ...

With personal video sharing and photo sharing gaining interest, Futuresource Consulting has carried out a UK market study to gain greater insight into the media that are being used, the decision-making process and the level of reliance on the available platforms. "An astounding 92 percent of survey respondents told us they are sharing their images with friends and family, either electronically or as hard copies," says Simon Bryant, Principal Consultant at Futuresource Consulting. The survey found that on-camera and via email are the most popular methods of sharing pictures. However, nearly half of all respondents are still sharing physical prints with friends and family -- though this behavior varies widely depending on the age of the respondent. Females are also more likely to share physical prints than males. The vast majority of people surveyed -- 85 percent in all -- also upload personal photos and/or videos to websites, with 16-34 year-olds leading the way. However, the...

Netbook PCs, pocket video camcorders, digital SLR cameras, smartphones, mobile Internet devices and handheld games consoles are fueling growth in the European portable electronics market, according to the latest study by Futuresource Consulting . The market grew 18 percent in 2008 to reach 155 million units and is forecast to grow a further 7 percent in 2009 to reach close to 170 million units. The market is growing by an expanding number of users, including younger and older consumers, more females, and less affluent households. Meanwhile, consumers are also replacing their devices more quickly. As an example, average camera replacement has reduced from 6-8 years to 3-5 years, while personal AV replacement has fallen from 5-7 years to 2-4years. Another important driver of portable electronics is gifting -- albeit in some European markets more than others -- where it can represent up to 60 percent or 70 percent of annual sales in product categories in certain countries. Personal electr...

Continued uptake of digital cameras in mobile phones, notebook PCs and other CE devices is driving growth in the area-array image sensor market, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. Worldwide unit shipments of image sensors in camera phones continue to rise, mostly as a result of the continuing penetration of dual-camera phones in Asian markets. These phones utilize both a traditional point-and-shoot camera, as well as a second, inward-facing camera for two-way video communication. As in most aspects of advanced mobile phone applications, the Asia-Pacific market continues to lead the way for others to follow. A promising new image sensor application is also taking hold. "Currently a small segment of the market, embedded PC cameras will surpass digital still cameras to become the second-largest application for image sensors by 2011," says Brian O'Rourke, In-Stat analyst. "A few years ago, only Apple incorporated cameras into desktop and laptop computers --...