The Minoru 3D Webcam is a

stereoscopic Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stereoscopic image is ...

webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripher ...

produced by Promotion and Display Technology of

Salford, Greater Manchester Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county aft ...

. Released in January 2009, it won the "Fans' Favorite" award at the

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event t ...

, in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

. According to the company, it is the "world's first consumer 3D-

." It was designed by David Holder. The webcam, which hooks to a computer via USB port, consists of two cameras, being "roughly the same distance apart as human eyes," that are held together in a device that resembles

Wall-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and co-written by Andrew Stanton, pro ...

, a

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

character, in appearance. It is capable of 3D, 2D, and

Picture-in-picture Picture-in-picture (PiP) is a feature that can be found in television receivers, personal computers and smartphones, consisting of a video stream playing within an inset window, freeing the rest of the screen for other tasks. For televisions, pic ...

graphics. Its image can be output from 320x240

pixels In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the sm ...

to 800x600 pixels, and is capable of 30 frames per second. The 3D imagery can be produced in anaglyph and side by side format. The camera has two VGA 640x480 CMOS sensors, two high-quality wide-angle lens, and a built in USB microphone. According to its website, it is most effective when the user is at a minimum of three feet away.Minoru User Guide 1.2 February 2009
/ref> It derives its name from the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

term

Minoru Minoru is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *Minoru Arakawa (荒川實, born 1946), Japanese former president of Nintendo of America * Minoru Chiaki (千秋実, 1917–1999), Japanese actor * Minoru Fujita ...

, which means "reality."

References

External links

*{{Official website, www.minoru3d.com Webcams Stereo cameras