Slashdot Mirror
Wrist Watch Camera Now with Color Display
camborg writes "Casio announced (in this Japanese Press Release) a new version of the famous wrist watch camera, which goes on sale in japan on the 23rd of November. The new model features a STN 4096 color display to directly view the color images on the wrist. The watch has a bit updated look and feel. Everything else is pretty much the same as the WQV-3 series color wrist camera. No release date for the USA yet. Photos of the watch can be seen at http://www.i4u.com"
Now what's a compelling reason to own one, again?
Easier for us to take photos anywhere anytime...
Easier for us to be taken anywhere anytime too...
For example, a link from the press release, http://members.tripod.com/mcmach1/voyeur.html.
I'm not saying it's evil, but I'm quite sure there are situations that you don't want people to see =)
If you have the source, you have the whole world...
Jpeg 176x144 resolution, something about 115,200 link speed (sounds like serial to me.)
unimpressed.
until it runs a trinary non-clock based system and has 9 megapixel resolution, and oh yeah, makes coffee, then I'll pass.
But damn, it's cool...
No release date for the USA yet
I hope all those people who whine about how the US dominates "everything" are paying attention. The US always comes up short on these cool little gadgets that the Japanese invent. Remember the PS-2 shortage last year?
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Do NOT give this watch as a gift to any farm vetrinatrian you know. The shutter button is too easily triggered if you know what I mean.
Tristan: "Seigfreid, come take a look at this photo on my wrist watch.."
Seigfreid: "My god! Is that Mr. Crowleys cow?"
Tristan: "I'm afraid so. I nip back out there and lance that abcess right away."
Seigfried: "And while you're at it, you might want to tidy up your watch - it's a bit rancid."
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
And it dosent look like it runs linux....YET! Not to mention MacOSX. Maybe Steve Jobs should check into a similar device as the next link in the digital hub. Its the natural progression....iMac, iBook, iPod....and the new watch cam.....iCantSeeADamnThingWithThisSillyWatch.
Because the reviews historically have not been kind.
It's neat. It's a swell toy. But it's expensive and produces photos of dubious quality. Anyone who has a couple hundred dollars to waste on something like this probably knows what he's getting into, but it's a damn shame the technology isn't quite there yet.
Watches are something everyone has, and it would be neat to get to the point where digital cameras are equally ubiquitous (albeit a bit scary from privacy and surveillance perspectives). But what are the odds that a consumer line like this will catch on when its flagship example is such a poor value? Most mainstream consumer products we see today started out expensive and crappy, but many more aren't around today because of those same drawbacks.
I suppose it'll change when another big player like Sony gets into the act. Though Sony is every bit as proprietary as Casio and perhaps more so, we'd at least benefit from having different proprietary techs banging it out on the open market. And maybe if I can transfer my low-res expensive watch photos to my low-res expensive pda, I'll feel better about having already wasted my money.
I remember making the old style box cameras and actually made one out of a film canister.
Had to use black tape on my finger for the shutter because the exposure time was 1sec or so.
This watch, like the canister camera is a neat toy but not really practicle.
Dunno if it could be increased in resolution and size, and maybe a memory stick added for image transfer it would be even cooler, but would still be just a neat toy of no practicle value.
The opposite is true now with digital cameras, than with "normal cameras"... consider that you can delete images from a digital camera and not from normal ones.
I forget if the question was asked here or over at arstechnica, but could we be losing our histroy (in images) because of digital cameras?
Think about it for a second, what photojournalist out there might delete by accident "that one photo" they hope to capture? With a film based camera you "have to wait" and then "judge the shot".
Neat toy, nice shiney object, bet it eats batteries like there is no tomorrow tho..batteries I'd wager that you can only get from the manufacturer.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
You mean like this gadget? [keep those pesky noodles out of your hair]
.
Or this one? [take a bath without getting wet!]
Japan dominates the cool gadget industry so well, they wrote a HOW-TO
Now the eyemodule cameras for Handspring PDAs are just right. I had the original and now have an eyemodule2 and can't say enough good things about it.
Obviously if you want hi-res pictures then a watch or a PDA addon is not what you need. But compare these pictures taken with the Casio watch, and these pictures taken with an eyemodule2. If you're a Handspring owner it's absolutely worth checking out.
But what I really want to know is what's up with that Nokia 7650 phone features on the same page as the new Casio watch?! It's beautiful!
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
The watch has a bit updated look and feel.
Favorite response:
a) A "bit" updated look and feel? Pfeh! Go for at least a byte updated or preferably a word updated look and feel for less eyestrain.
b) Wait, doesn't Apple have an "updated look and feel" copyrighted?!
c) Cowboy Neal.
I've been looking for a watch to replace my current one - it stores telephone numbers and appointments. The problem is that it has 6 buttons - entering any data into it takes several seconds, and there is no way to pull the data off. Every 18 months, you'll have to re-enter everything after changing the battery.
So, I start looking at the watches like Timex's DataMan watch, that can be programmed from a computer. However, the transfer is still one way - from computer to watch. I'd like to be able to pull the data up from the watch, too.
Now, Casio has such a watch - it uses IR to communicate to and from the computer (I don't know if it uses actual IRDA protocol or just some bastard protocol Casio came up with - but I know where I'd place my bets...). However, this watch does not come in a version with a calculator pad (back to several seconds to enter the data) and is only available on-line as far as I can tell (not a huge problem, but I'd like to try it before I buy it.)
Now, Casio is releasing watches with barometers, GPS, phones, pagers, cameras, and compasses, but do they actually release a watch that contains a set of useful features?
(No, I don't want a PDA. I want something small, strapped to my body in a convenient place, that does a very limited set of functions, not a device that I must carry in a large pocket and must remember to pick up in the morning.)
www.eFax.com are spammers