Kodak unveils new digital technology

Five years after establishing simplicity as the key benchmark in digital photography, Eastman Kodak Co. on Tuesday unveiled what it sees as the next frontier in consumer picture-taking.

Kodak gave business and trade reporters and analysts a glimpse at new technologies designed to “radically enhance” the use of images in everyday life.

“We’re unveiling the next innovations in consumer digital photography that will allow people to take, share and archive pictures in ways they never thought possible,” said Pierre Schaeffer, chief marketing officer of Kodak’s consumer digital photography group.

Soon to emerge from the company’s research labs, Kodak said, are software applications that will recognize and remember faces in hopes of making it easier for consumers to find pictures of friends and family. The company is also working on software that will automatically place images into specific computer folders based on their content, as well as a photo-blogging prototype to make it simpler for groups to share images.

To go with the concepts, Kodak is also introducing two new products. The company’s new EasyShare V610 is the second to contain two lenses and two image sensors, one for regular zoom, the other for wide-angle picture-taking.

The V610 contains Bluetooth wireless technology, meaning that users will be able to transmit pictures from the camera to other Bluetooth devices up to 30 feet away. The V610 will be available in May.

The second new product is the next generation of the EasyShare-One, which was the first to allow users to e-mail images directly from the camera using Wi-Fi technology.

•New drugs in development and changes in all operations will help struggling drug maker Merck & Co. regain industry leadership, Richard T. “Dick” Clark told shareholders Tuesday at his first annual meeting as CEO.

For much of the meeting, Merck executives touted the company’s drug pipeline and promised a return to strong growth despite the weight of litigation over withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.

However, stockholders approved a proposal to give themselves more control over the Whitehouse Station-based company, recommending that the board take steps to allow a simple majority of shareholder votes to approve major actions.

It now requires 80 percent for such decisions.