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Modifications to the world's fastest camera are enabling the real-time identification of rare breast cancer cells in blood, with a record low false-positive rate of one cell in a million, according to new research out of UCLA.

"This technology can significantly reduce errors and costs in medical diagnosis," lead author Keisuke Goda, a UCLA program manager in electrical engineering and bioengineering, said in a school news release.

The team's approach could not only pave the way for earlier detection of cancer and monitoring of drug and radiation therapy but also prove useful in urine analysis, water … Read more

If you have a digital camera, it doesn't take long to fill your PC with lots and lots of high-quality images, some of them huge in size. Fortunately there's no shortage of free photo-resizing software, ranging from small and speedy tools that emphasize automatic operation and batch conversion to full-fledged graphics tools rivaling some pricey packages. EasyNote's PhotoTrim definitely hews to the simple-is-better philosophy, offering basic settings and speedy batch conversion as well as some compression. Unfortunately, it's not exactly free: you have to register to unlock "advanced" features such as cropping. Add in … Read more

Let's get one thing straight up front: the term "cinematic" does not in this instance mean it's time to order up some popcorn. There's no color, no dramatic score, no super slow-mo to announce the climax. This is gritty black-and-white footage of a woman giving birth.

But don't let the grit fool you into thinking it's low tech. The world's first birth in an MRI machine was announced by scientists at Charite University Hospital in Berlin back in December 2010, and they're only now releasing the 25-second video, which was made … Read more

Instagram is a free and fairly simple photo enhancement app that requires only a couple of touches to produce great-looking images. But what's really special about Instagram are the sharing capabilities that let you tell the story of your life through photos.

Start by signing up with Instagram with an e-mail address, username, and password. From there you can configure Instagram to autopost to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Posterous, or just choose to share images from within the app or via e-mail. You can also turn any of these options on or off if you don't … Read more

Bing is now offering 165 terabytes of new birds-eye-view satellite shots of locations all over the Earth, from the Moroccan Mountains to Egypt's pyramids of Giza to the Extraterrestrial Highway in the U.S.

This is Microsoft's mapping engine's largest satellite data release ever. Before today, Bing Map's total amount of data was 129TB. So, what can be seen on the search engine's maps has now more than doubled in size.

"This release features imagery over North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Europe and Asia," Bing wrote in a blog post today. "… Read more

Sony sees an opportunity in CMOS image sensors and is investing serious cash into them to prove it.

The company today announced that it plans to invest about 80 billion yen ($996 million) into the Sony Semiconductor Corp.'s Nagasaki Technology Center. The funds will start flowing in the first half of the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2013 and will be cut off in the first half of its next fiscal year.

Sony's investment is designed to increase total production capacity for CCD and CMOS image sensors to approximately 60,000 wafers per month by the end … Read more

Tumblr (free), the popular blogging platform, just released a revamped version of its app for iOS. In the major update to Tumblr 3.0, the layout has been completely redesigned (bringing it more in line with the Android version, covered in April by Jaymar Cabebe), giving you many of the tools found on the Web site and intuitive swipe controls for posting.

Several tweaks to the interface make the app both easy on the eyes and easier to use. The revamped Dashboard supports high-res images; you can now post and listen to audio links that stream directly from Spotify; and … Read more

The photo-friendly company Yahoo just got a new boost of professional images to pop up in image and video searches. In an announcement that it is partnering with stock photo agency Getty Images, according to VentureBeat, the search engine upps its esthetic image today.

Now when users search for images like Lake Tahoe, in addition to dozens of small thumbnails, they'll also see one enlarged photo of the Sierra Nevada lake taken by a Getty Images photographer. There is also a full-screen viewing option on some image searches and a video preview option when a user hovers over the … Read more

When it comes to producing professional-looking movies and demos from your computer screen, TechSmith's Camtasia Studio is known for striking the right balance between a powerful toolset and ease of use. Version 8, released today, adds even more useful features that encourage end-user interactivity without making the app any more complex to use.

The feature-packed screencast app, which includes HD production settings, does have a learning curve, but the user-friendly interface and front-and-center icons for most-used tools go a long way toward lowering the intimidation factor a notch. Plus, TechSmith provides a useful online help center that includes several … Read more