6Sight Takes Stock of the Present While Peering Into the Future

November 2008

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You know you’re at a “different” kind of trade show when one of the speakers presents a video of his eye being removed during some rather graphic surgery and then tells the gathering he is looking to have a digital camera attached to his replacement eye to “less intrusively” film his next documentary on the future of surveillance in the world.

That fascinating bit of news was just a part of the annual 6Sight Conference held in Monterey, Ca. last week as the imaging industry took stock of its present while taking a long, serious look at its future.

The aforementioned one-eyed filmmaker is one Rob Spence, a Canadian whose film credits include Toronto Sucks, an examination of why the rest of Canada has a general disdain for the city of Toronto. Spence was on hand at 6Sight as he is looking for a company that can (and actually several have) develop a video camera that he can attach to his fake eye in order to film his next project.

One of the companies that might be a good fit, no pun intended, is Tessera Technologies, Inc. who exhibited at the show, announcing “Small is Big” - a session that featured the future development of extremely small, low-cost “intelligent” camera modules that can be deployed in a wide range of consumer devices including, toys, multi-sensor cameras, automobiles, televisions and remote control devices. www.tessera.com

Another interesting session included Apeer Inc. whose CEO Bob Goldstein demo’d what the company calls “the world’s first all-in-one group communication and collaboration application for digital media.” One of the pieces many people feel is missing from the sharing experience with much of digital imaging today is reaction an intimacy as many consumers simple send images off in an e-mail or post them to an online gallery and that’s that – there’s no actual interaction with family or friends.

The Apeer technology demonstrated how it can transform post-and-share photo applications into instantly interactive social networking experiences. The Apeer Professional is a new and unique vehicle for communicating with friends and technology enables synchronous and instant multi-user, participatory exchanges where all parties can simultaneously view photos, hear music, and see videos in real time over the Internet - all in one window. Apeer also provides conversational tools with built-in voice and chat for what they call “a very robust interactive experience.” And that it was for those that were at their 6Sight session.