Back in my day getting red eye out of pictures taken with cell phones required post-photoshoot touch ups on a computer. Thanks to FotoNation which has just released its new red eye correcting technology for camera phones the touch up can be done automatically and on the spot.

FotoNation is well known for its red eye technology and has provided it to brands such as Kodak, Nikon, PENTAX, Sanyo and Samsung for their digital cameras. FotoNation also won the 2006 European IST award for its red eye correction technology. With all that under its belt you know it’s not a bunch of guys working in their mom’s garage with a budget based off string and a can of lima beans. Of course if you want the more professional version of what I just said you can hear it straight from the CEO.

“FotoNation’s Red Eye detection and reduction technology has become the defacto standard for embedded implementations of red-eye correction in today’s digital cameras,” said Eran Steinberg, CEO of FotoNation.

The new technology will be making its first product appearance on the Nokia N73, N80 and N93 series of camera phones. Although it will be demonstrated at the Photo Marketing Association Show (PMA) in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 8-11, 2007. I hope vegas is prepaired for the storm of avid camera phone photographers.

For those of you who aren’t in the know the government has decided to stop collecting the excise tax on long distance calls. Not only that they’ll be refunding any payments applicable to the tax that were made between March 1, 2003 and July 31, 2006. While that may be good news, the better news for Vonage users is that Vonage has made it a simple 5 step process to get a refund.

1. Log into your Vonage web account and click on Billing.

2. Next, click on Billing History, located directly under the Billing link.

3. This will show every invoice created since your account was created.

4. Select each invoice (one at a time) dated March 1, 2003 – July 31, 2006.

5. Locate the section labeled Charges Detail.

Feel free to check out Vonage’s help site for more information. Refunds are expected to range from about 30-60 dollars. That’s like a brand spankin new video game or several dozen burritos. Anybody up for a crackdown burritofest?

As you may know voip is all the rage. The Worldgate Ojo is what I like to call foip technology, or fugliness over internet protocol, because most people on the interwebs have about as much physical appeal as a 3 year old opened package of bologna.

The real news is that the Ojo is now capable of working with the H.263 and G729 video and audio codecs along with now being able to use the H.323 communication protocol. This basically means the Ojo can work with other webcams and of course it will still be able to interact with other Ojos.

“We are confident that this interoperability will not only further the advancement of the video phone market, but also, Ojo’s market penetration and leadership position within that market,” said Hal Krisbergh, Chairman and CEO, WorldGate

The capability will first be used by SNAP VRS, a subsidiary of Aequus technologies, beginning this March. Snap VRS provides sign language interpretation for the hearing impaired and now will not be limited to just Ojo video phones. For those interested in the Ojo it costs $399 dollars directly from Worldgate.

*Tidbit of the day: Ojo means eye in spanish.

In a typical imperialist Google move the company has released a premium version of its office suite of programs. They perform the basic functions used in office work including emailing, word processing, spreadsheet management and instant messaging.

The premium suite costs $50 dollars per worker per year as opposed to Microsoft Office which costs at least $500. A free version exists with advertisements and 2 gb of email storage instead of the 10 gb found in the premium version. The price as well as Google’s name strength gives this product set a fighting chance. The biggest possible drawback is the storage of company information on Google’s servers as opposed to servers privately owned by the company.

[Via USA Today]

Ubisoft has released a demo for PC of the teenage mutant ninja turtles game base on the upcoming movie. The demo is time limited but being the mysterious son of a guns they are Ubisoft hasn’t disclosed what the limit actually is. It weighs in at 259 MB so you’ll probably be staring at the download bar for a bit.

The final game will be available March (next month for those without a calendar) for “PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance”. Virtually every current console known to man. It’ll be rated E10+ meaning it’s intended for those age 10 and older. Which shouldn’t be a problem since most Nextlust readers are probably over 10, all 4 of you.

[Via Gamespot]

Cuba and Venezuela decided to go open source and abandon our proprietary software and copyright laws. An interesting comment from the communications minister of Cuba equated the world’s information systems to a “battlefield” in which Cuba is the underdog fighting off imperialism.

Also interesting to note is that Richard Stallman, professional nerd and hippie, showed up to the announcement with his own analogy. He decided to take the risky domestic approach and equated software to recipes which should be altered however the user thinks would be best etc. etc. Very persuasive except that I don’t cook. Proprietary fast food ftw.

[Via ZDNet]

This article may be directed at the wrong crowd since you’re reading this, which means you can see. Over at USC they’ve developed prosthetic retinas. There’s been about 6 participants who had them implanted and they can detect light as well as distinguish between objects like plates and cups in some cases. A huge step up from being blind.

The Argus II is the second generation of retinal prosthetics with 60 electrodes instead of the first generation’s 16. This second generation version is also a quarter of the size making the surgery simpler and providing faster recovery rates.

[Via DailyTech]