Typically, if you want to use your DSLR with a remote, you have to go out and buy some wireless remote that operates over RF or some other wireless communication protocol. There have been ways in the past to use attachments to your camera in conjunction with apps to remotely control your camera, but those all cost money. A new app called ShutterBOT DSLR Remote finally allows you to wirelessly take your smartphone and control your DSLR with it, without paying a penny. This free Android app allows you to once and for all control your DSLR with a smartphone app.

The great thing about having a DSLR Android camera app is that you have less equipment to carry around and you can take better long exposure photos without worrying about camera shake. The app itself supports a multitude of cameras and smartphones, but currently does not support the LG G2 even though it does have an IR blaster. The key for this free wireless camera app to work is that your phone has to have an IR blaster built into it, something that Apple’s phones simply don’t have. Thankfully, all three of the major Android smartphones launched this year, Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and LG G3 all have IR blasters built in for TV purposes but can also double as camera controllers.

The app itself is very simple and very well designed, and has three ways of taking a photo. First, you can simply take a picture by pressing the on-screen button, second you can choose to have a timer and third you can choose to use voice activated shutter, which is also how the developer is able to monetize the app. This is the only in-app purchase that the developer is currently making available, but there’s a good chance that new features may also come in the form of in-app purchases. Perhaps something like an intervalometer or some other features that cameras might lack internally.

As of right now, the app supports the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Tab 3 & Tab 4, S4 & S5, HTC One and One M8, and LG G3. No word on Galaxy Note 4 support yet, but that may already be functional. The app states that it supports Canon, Fuji, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, and Sony, so we’ll be testing this out for ourselves shortly. The developer states that this app is designed to replace the manufacturers’ own IR remotes, specifically Canon’s RC-1, RC-5, RC-6, Nikon’s ML-L3, and Olympus RM-1. Considering that this app is free and a Nikon ML-L3 goes for $18 on B&H Photo, this app is almost a no-brainer for any photographer looking to use a remote in their photos.

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Past two decades saw the automotive industry trying to push advanced electronics onto a very old and slow serial backbone protocol called CAN bus, which resulted in less than satisfactory technology. This is the main reason why pardon us saying, most car electronics of today aren’t integrated and crash worse than Windows 95 on a no-name PoS system made in rural China.

With the advancement of MOST15, ethernet-based optical protocol with speeds of up to 150Mbps (CAN is 40-125 Kbps on a good day – yes, slower than what you used to connect to the Internet in 1990s), car manufacturers are finally starting to push the technology integration leading to safe cars. In a way, we can compare the automotive industry of today as an airline industry in 1980s, when pressured with crashes and failures that took thousands of lives – airline industry came up with much safer protocols, reducing the number of passenger deaths. Now, does that sound familiar (how many people die on the roads each day?)?

Toyota Hachi-Roku meets Gran Turismo 6

With the New York International Auto Show preparing to open its doors, car manufacturers are gearing up to demonstrate new technology that will grace the cars of tomorrow and today’s story shows you two very shiny examples of technology integration which is close to entering mass manufacturing. First up is Toyota, with the integration of onboard telemetry recorder inside of their GT86 (Hachi Roku) sports cars. The “Sports Drive Logger” is enabling the driver to input his driving data on race tracks into the popular Gran Turismo 6 game for the Sony PlayStation console. This syncs the vehicle data compared to what you experience in a game, and you can race yourself and see what the best lines you did and what you should have done to achieve ideal lap time.

Data transfer is enabled through a simple USB drive (addmitedly so, with a cool 86 logo on it), which you shift between a real car and the PlayStation 3 console. So far, this feature will be enabled only for the Japan market, where three race tracks are supported: Fuji Speedway (owned by Toyota, of course), Suzuka International Circuit (owned by Honda) and privately owned Tsukuba Circuit 2000.

Toyota Sports Drive Logger is a button and a USB key in one. Import data into Gran Turismo 6 and compare yourself.

Imagine this as an ultimate driving simulator which will change how racing drivers adapt to the race in phase one, but the technology can easily expand onto Safe Driving courses on race tracks and in couple of years, as automotive industry adapts to the ‘big data’ trend, for automotive industry means we could go into a world with less real-world crashes, as less experience drivers can learn how their vehicle react.

Land Rover Augmented Reality

Second concept is something we might say nothing short of revolutionary. When Peugeot launched a concept vehicle with full-screen HUD (Heads-Up Display) couple of years ago – it was viewed as a concept which might see the light of day. Land Rover, now owned by Indian conglomerate Tata is starting to use the Tata Communications backbone to plug into ‘big data’ and enable Augmented Reality in the best possible way.

The Transparent Bonnet concept utilizes a wide-angle camera, a powerful onboard computer with a GPU inside and a windscreen wide flexible display which overlays the windscreen (in its entirety). The end result is that the bonnet of your car becomes transparent and you see the physically-correct location of the wheels and the road ahead of you. You can use this technology to park in narrow places, see what lies beneath your car as you pass and overall, contribute to the safety of passengers onboard.

The company will reveal more at the afore mentioned New York International Auto Show (April 18-27), and we hope that this concept will become a reality in Land Rover and Range Rover vehicles over the next couple of years. Would you like to live in such a future, wher Augmented Reality meets advanced computer simulations?

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