Sights and Sounds of Multimedia

By George Harding

NV3 Digital Camera by Samsung …

Here’s another neat item from CES, a multi-purpose digital camera, which is also a text file reader, movie player, music player, and more!

It is a 7.2 megapixel camera with 3X optical zoom and a large 2.5” (diagonal) LCD viewing screen. It is quite thin, only ¾”. It has three buttons on top: on/off, mode selector and shutter release. The back has the LCD viewing screen, a zoom in/out lever, three special purpose buttons, and a menu button with a four-function ring switch around it. The bottom has a slot for a connector used to charge the battery and to download pictures, a fitting for a tripod screw and the battery/memory card compartment. The front has the lens (only 5/8” in diameter), the flash and a diode for self-portrait timing.

The LCD viewing screen is quite large, consuming almost ¾ ths of the back of the camera. It has a very bright screen which shows not only the view of the picture to be taken, but also information about the function to be performed. Function selections are displayed in the screen.

The mode selector has AUTO, Scene, Movie, MP3, Text, ASR and Program choices. For taking pictures, the AUTO mode involves the fewest complications! In the movie mode, the camera works like a video camera, beginning to record when you press the shutter release, continuing until either the available memory is exhausted or the shutter button is pressed again. The file created is an AVI type file.

In the movie mode, you can play movies you’ve taken, as well as those you download from your PC. The camera has stereo speakers to allow you to hear movie sound and MP3 music. The MP3 mode allows you to play MP3 files, which you load from your PC.

The Text mode allows you to read text files that you downloaded from your PC.

The ASR mode is interesting. It stands for Advanced Shake Reduction. It helps to eliminate camera movement while you take the picture. It does not affect taking pictures of moving objects.

You can do about anything you want with this camera (it should probably be called a multi-function device, but that’s not very understandable!). Taking pictures is probably the most frequent thing one would do. In my use, I found the pictures to be very good. There are some functions in the camera that allow you to do some low-level editing of the pictures you take, like red-eye removal, cropping, combine 2-4 pictures into one or add certain frames to a picture (heart, circle, and so on).

I’m only touching the surface of the features of this camera. There are many more.

One thing about this camera is that there are so many options and choices that it’s hard to understand what they all are, much less remember how to use them. I don’t see this as a complaint about the camera, but rather state it as a measure of the complexity of this camera and others like it. There is a learning time for committed users.

The camera comes with a CD-ROM which installs the camera driver for your PC. There is also a cable with a special connector on one end and a USB connector on the other, for charging the camera and uploading your pictures to your PC. There is also a special plug which can be used with a wall outlet to charge the camera battery.

The image resolution is adjustable from 640 X 480 to 3072 X 2304, with correspondingly greater storage size.

The manual really well written. It contains graphics as well as tabular and text information that makes it easy to learn what the camera will do. The initial index is very complete and the tables have helpful page references. The box comes with two manuals, one in English and one in Spanish. Each has a sticker on the cover with telephone numbers for technical support. Samsung has gone to great lengths to see that you understand and appreciate your camera!

The price may seem high, compared with other digital cameras, but quality and features certainly justify the Samsung pricing. I note that my HP digital camera, with 3 megapixels, cost $300 3 years ago and has far fewer features!

NV3 from Samsung www.samsungcamera.com Price about $250

LaserShield Alarm System …

When you go outside your home, do you worry about someone breaking in and stealing all your good stuff? Here’s a simple and inexpensive solution that will eliminate the worry!

LaserShield is a two-part system that protects your space from invaders. The first part is the physical system, two units place in strategic locations, one to detect invaders, the other to notify LaserShield’s Rapid Response service.

When detection of an invader occurs, a very loud siren sounds, which probably will cause anyone inside the space to vacate it immediately. An automatic phone call is made to the Rapid Response service, which calls to verify an emergency. If you answer, you can cancel or cause calls to police to deal with the emergency. If you don’t answer, Rapid Response calls police and continues to try to notify you of the alert.

This system doesn’t involve any installation or wires. You can easily set it up and have it operational immediately. A single call to the monitoring service can activate your system.

LaserShield comes with the master alarm unit, a wireless detection unit, two keychain remotes (which include panic buttons) and window decals. Both the base units plug into wall units, but the master unit also has 12 hour backup battery power. The wireless detector includes a shield to prevent pets from triggering an alarm.

The two-unit system costs about $200 plus $20 per month, with a one-time $25 activation fee. Additional wireless units may be purchased for $60 each.

LaserShield www.lasershield.net