Microsoft"s Surface Hub is a relatively expensive piece of hardware that organizations can purchase to power conferences on a large display with purpose-built Windows software - or at least some of it. Today, Microsoft has announced an accessory, namely the "Smart Camera", for Surface Hub 2 and 2S devices.
Microsoft has boasted that the Smart Camera is a "professional grade" camera and is powered by AI to adjust according to multiple environments with differing lighting and depth of field effects. It also features auto-framing technologies that ensure that meeting participants can be clearly seen and heard, regardless of where they are in a room.
Pertinent specifications of the Smart Camera include:
- A 12-megapixel sensor, with a stellar 136-degree field of view lens that can keep things near (.4m) and far (8m) simultaneously in crisp focus across a wide variety conference room sizes and configurations
- 1 Teraflop of compute power (a trillion floating point calculations per second)
- A new algorithm we developed to automatically compensate for tilt, distortions and wide-angle corrections so object appear as they would in real life
- AI that can detect people across a variety of postures, lighting conditions and rooms, ensuring every participant is equally visible
Clearly, the key point that Microsoft wants to hammer home with its latest piece of hardware is that it is AI-powered and can self-optimize according to a variety of different settings. The peripheral is designed to be portable so it can relocated to a different position if needed as well. It features an aluminum body and has a USB-C mount and magnetic attachments so you can clip it to the top of your Surface Hub or other hardware.
The Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera is available today for all markets where Surface Hub devices are sold. It comes with a price tag of $799.99 if you buy it separately. Businesses will also be able to purchase Surface Hub 2S with the accompanying Smart Camera for $21,999.99 from May 31.