Back in February, I told you about the new Piko and Piko+ 4K webcams from Emeet. The webcams feature two lenses; one for imaging and another for AI tracking of movement and exposure.
Now Emeet has announced the first dual-camera PTZ webcam with augmented AI technology. Built around a high-quality Sony 1.255-inch sensor, the Pixy webcam is adept at producing sharp images in low light levels.
EMEET describes the new PIXY as "the world's first dual-camera AI-powered PTZ 4K webcam."
The letters PTZ stands for Pan, Tilt and Zoom which means this small webcam can move through three axes so it can continuously track a subject. The zoom claim may be a bit of a stretch as there is only a 1.5x digital zoom in 1080P mode, but no zoom in 4K mode.
The native video output of the Pixy is 4K UHD at 30 frames per second or 1080P at 60 frames per second. The video is augmented by the second camera which acts as an AI assistant. While the main handles imaging, the other harnesses AI to track subjects, keep focus and alter exposure.
Emeet claims the dual-camera system can handle challenging lighting conditions, such as backlit subjects or low-light scenes but preserving detail and optimizing the webcam's facial imaging performance.
With features like 0.2-second BlinkFocus auto-focus, gesture-based PTZ subject tracking and AI-powered enhancements for subject capture, focus and video quality, this webcam represents a major step up from a regular fixed focus webcam. The versatility offered by the Pixy webcam is not only useful for Zoom calls but it can also be used by content creators for shooting YouTube videos.
The BlinkFocus feature enables the Pixy to snap to focus in just 0.2 of a second. Which is about 2.5 times faster than the industry average. The AI-assisted face detection can detect a human face as quickly as 0.2 seconds by automatically and intelligently detecting a person's facial contours, adjusting the exposure ensuring natural skin tones and achieving a balance between highlights and shadows.
In addition to its facial recognition features, the Pixy also has gesture-controlled automatic tracking. This technology enables the Pixy to pan and tilt as it follows a subject moving around the camera, keeping the images sharp, clear, properly exposed and correctly framed.
There are three microphones built into the webcam to produce audio that matches the video performance in terms of quality. The mics have three tuned audio presets -- Live Mode, Noise-Cancelling Mode and Original Sound Mode -- offering a high degree of flexibility, including the tuning out of any unwanted background sounds.
For content creators, Pixy has presets for custom PTZ setups. This enables switching between different positions and zoom levels. The Emeet Studio software also includes an AI scriptwriting feature that can provide help with ideas with voiceovers or by offering tips on how to shoot a particular scene.
With optimized presets stored for instant recall when switching shots, the software also has some other special modes including a clarity-enhancing Whiteboard Mode that can create a picture-in-picture of an information board on display in a meeting room. There is also an Inversion Mode for mounting the PIXY upside down, plus a vertical video-optimized Portrait Mode in a 9:16 ratio for side-mounting a webcam.
To ensure privacy, the Pixy can be tilted downwards which then places the webcam into privacy mode. The webcam remains in a face-down position clearly showing it is inoperative. The privacy mode can also be set up with an automatic timeout so it goes to sleep after a set amount of time.