LOL well the publicity sure cannot hurt, Jubimer.
Hope someday to know roughly what AXC tech, beyond DST, is actually proprietary in the brave new digital world. Everyone and his second cousin are working in the digital domain. Gus referred to their analogue to digital competencies as their " crown jewels". Hope they can convert them into something that someone wants to buy. I am sure Steve is correct about KM in a MicroNet Raid, though my impression was that it is not very expensive to implement. But if they'd have to customize the head platter and preamp? Then no wonder it did not sell.
Can Camera's X-Ray Vision
Get X-Rated Shots?
By Michael Colton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 15, 1998; Page B1
ÿ ÿ Sales clerk Rick Young, of Arlington, Mass., displays a Sony Handycam video camera. (AP)
Remember those "X-ray specs" advertised in the backs of comic books? The ones that promised glimpses through clothing and skin but, most importantly, through clothing?
And remember how they delivered a big, dense mass of nothing?
Now, for several hundred dollars more, the curious can try again with a high-tech version that Sony has unwittingly let loose on the market. Consumers are divided as to whether this is indeed a true gateway to flesh - the Holy Grail of home electronics - or just much ado about clothing.
This month, the Japanese electronics giant halted shipment of its Handycam video cameras until modifications are made, after a Japanese magazine revealed that the cameras' infrared "Nightshot" feature, intended to capture nighttime images such as sleeping babies and nocturnal animals, may have an unintended bonus under certain conditions during daylight hours: the ability to see through clothing. The modified models will not allow use of the function in daylight, but many original versions are still on the shelves at local stores.
If it actually works, it would undoubtedly change the tenor of all that sightseeing on the Mall and elsewhere. One young man, who said he heard about the feature on the Internet and has used his friend's Handycam, boasted of its quality at Circuit City Express in Pentagon City yesterday.
What could he see? "The better question is, 'What can't you see?'" said the young man, who would not give his name. "It's not as much detail as in a photograph, but it's good."
Steve Uhrig, who is familiar with infrared technology though he has not used a Sony Handycam, doubts the feature's effectiveness.
"Under precise conditions, you'll think you'll see something but you won't," said Uhrig, president of SWS Security, a Maryland company that manufactures surveillance systems for government agencies. "Infrared rays can penetrate through lightly woven clothing and reflect back, but not in real detail. You'll see something big and dense on the other side of the clothing. It's the same illusion as X-ray specs."
Sony first discovered its product's potential when Takarajima, a popular Japanese men's magazine, reported in July that the camera, in conjunction with an inexpensive filter and specific circumstances - such as a subject with tight, light clothing - enables viewers to see underwear or peek under swimsuits when the Nightshot feature is activated.
Sony officials cautiously acknowledge that there may be some truth to that. "Engineers in Japan tried to replicate what was done in the news story," said Sony spokesperson Dulcie Neiman. "In some very special circumstances - depending on the daylight, the type of clothing, the texture, the color, the thickness, how much clothing is worn, the distance of the person to the camera - that reported capability could be replicated."
But Neiman added that American technicians are still evaluating the product and have not reached a conclusion. "I'm not saying that it works, but it appears to have some limited capability. If you ask me, 'Can you see nudity?' I'd say, 'I don't know.'"
In all, 380,000 Handycams in 11 different models have been manufactured for the U.S. market since March, at prices ranging from $600 to $1,500. Neiman said many people have called Sony's toll-free phone line this week to find out where the cameras are sold and if they can actually see through clothes.
Local store employees - some of whom had not heard about the X-ray rumors - reported only slight interest in the cameras yesterday. "I think it's a bunch of hype," said Pierre Sandoval, a salesman at Best Buy in Pentagon City.
At Sandoval's store, frustrated customers and employees alike tested out the cameras' infrared function in the store's harsh fluorescent light. They pressed different buttons and created fuzzy greenish images, but, alas, no nudity. |
