Erica Yen, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Monday 30 May 2011]

Equipping connected TVs with built-in camera modules will become a trend because the camera function can be used for Skype video calls, face recognition and motion detection, and the addition of such modules costs an extra US$10-15 only, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Panasonic and other international vendors have offered connected TVs with Skype connection through external web cameras. Japan-based vendors are expected to take the initiative to launch connected TVs with built-in camera modules by the end of 2012, the sources indicated.

Since TV screens are relatively large, such camera modules will have a H.264 codec chip to compress video and reach a transfer rate of 30 frames per second at 1,080×720 resolution, the sources added.

Original post by Dabin Yang