Re-imagining mobile imaging

At its unveil event in New York, Technophile had the opportunity to go hand-on with HTC's latest smartphone and an all new handheld camera.

The Desire Eye smartphone has been developed based on HTC’s new imaging technology - Eye Experience. The eye experience platform offers exclusive features which can enable you take selfies seamlessly. With its auto selfie feature, you just have to compose the shot and hold the phone steady for two seconds, and the picture is shot automatically. The introduction of voice prompts makes it even easier to shoot a picture or a video. All you need to do is just say ‘cheese’ to click a photo and ‘action’ to shoot a video.

With a 13MP, dual flash front and rear camera, HTC Desire Eye enables you to take pictures and videos using both the front and the rear camera simultaneously. You can now capture the scenery around you, even as you snap a picture of your self. If you are a creative person, you may want to try the crop-me-in option, which will let you crop your picture and super impose it on the scenery that you’ve been gazing at. You can also choose to place yourself anywhere within the picture captured by the rear camera.

Not just that, HTC’s Desire Eye comes with an innovative new face fusion technology. This allows you to combine photos of two people. You can choose how much you want to blend the features of these two people. The new face tracking and screen share technology helps you connect better with people during travel. For instance, the face tracking technology recognises your face even while maintaining the depth of the image. If you are in a video conference with your friend, you are free to move around within the camera’s field of view. The face tracking technology will keep your face in focus. It can track up to four faces at a time and put them in a grid. The screen share feature eases sharing of content on your phone’s desktop while on a call.

Desire Eye, weighing 154 grams, comes with 16 GB memory, which can be expanded up to 128 GB. Its 5.2-inch Full HD display makes it convenient to view pictures and content. With a 2400 mAh battery, you can talk up to 20 hrs. The battery stand by time is 538 hours for 3G. Desire Eye is expected to be launched in India on Friday and hit the shelves by end of November.

If you own a HTC One phone, there’s more reason for you to cheer. The eye experience technology will also be available to HTC One customers by end of next month.

With a sleek, cylindrical design, HTC’s RE camera weighing 65.5 grams fits naturally in the palm, making it easy to hold. It scores over its competitor GoPro, for its sheer design and ease of operation. Thanks to the built-in grip sensor, the device turns on automatically, the moment you get hold of your RE, saving you the hassle of having to switch on the power button whenever you wish to shoot a video or photo. What makes RE camera distinct from its competitor GoPro is the fact that the device can be mounted even on a tripod stand, saving you the money that you would have to otherwise spend on buying the various types of mounts! RE camera is water resistant and you can capture shots up to one metre under water for nearly 30 minutes without requiring any additional casing/cover. With an IP58 cap, you can go up to 3 metres under water and shoot pictures and videos for almost 2 hours.

The small camera comes with a 16 mega-pixel CMOS sensor and a 146-degree wide-angle lens, which enables you to do full length HD video recording.

The most interesting aspect of this device is that the photos and videos you shoot can be seamlessly transferred to your mobile phone using the RE application. This app is available on android and iOS phones. Once your phone is mapped with the RE device through this app, you can view these images on your phone even as you shoot them. You can also do slow motion recording with HTC’s RE camera. Priced at $199 in the US, RE Camera, is expected to be launched in India this week. RE camera will be available for sale in India from November.

The writer was in New York on HTC’s invite

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