Touchpad controller chipmaker Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電子) is scheduled to showcase its first processors for 360° virtual reality (VR) cameras at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opening in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The chips are to power the 360° Luna camera at the show. The Luna camera, developed by the US company Memora Inc, contends for market share with the likes of GoPro.
The chips were developed by its subsidiary Avionic Technology Co (義晶科技), Elan Microelectronics said during their launch in Taiwan two weeks ago.
“As Facebook and YouTube support the posting and viewing of 360° interactive videos, we believe this 360° camera will fully satisfy customers’ needs to share videos with their friends almost instantly,” Elan Microelectronics said.
The Luna camera allows users to record videos and spherical photos without the need for post-processing procedures, Elan Microelectronics said.
What makes Luna stand out is its affordable price of US$500 per unit, compared with other virtual reality cameras on the market that have almost identical features and cost between US$3,000 and US$30,000, Elan said
The Luna camera, which is the size of a billiard ball, is now available for pre-order, according to Memora’s Web site.
Elan Microelectronics reported a 2.2 percent annual growth in revenue for November at NT$599 million (US$18.12 million). Chips for touch screens and touchpads accounted for 68 percent of the figure.
In the first 11 months of last year, the firm’s revenues shrank 13.38 percent to NT$6.1 billion from NT$7.04 billion in the same period the previous year.
In related news, local chip designer Etron Technology Inc (鈺創) plans to showcase its new 360° VR camera, chips and software to support VR cameras as well as software used for drones, at the show.
With a growing number of VR gadgets coming into the market — including HTC Corp’s (宏達電) Vive — TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) forecasts that global shipments of headsets would soar to 27 million units this year, from 8 million units last year.
The shipment value of VR gadgets and software would soar to a combined US$6.7 billion and to US$70 billion respectively in 2020, the Taipei-based researcher predicted.
Consumers can now view and interact with 360° videos on mobile phones, laptops and even on Apple TVs, with or without wearing VR headsets.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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