HP Experiments with 'Always On' Camera

An anonymous reader writes "Hewlett-Packard researchers in the U.K. are working on a camera that's always on, recording everything you see and letting you go back later and decide what's actually photo-worthy. Raises some serious privacy questions. But as an HP researcher notes, "If your wearable camera is always on ... you're not going to miss any moments, but you're also going to get a load of junk.""

Comments

similar thing posted already

[radixvir]

Sounds alot like the Microsoft Wearable camera. anyways i think its a cool idea. Sometimes i dont feel like taking pictures manually and maybe it will get more 'real life' photos instead of having everyone poised for them.

Re:Privacy Issues?

[MerlynEmrys67]

what's the problem?? I'm not trying to troll, but why is this such a big deal?

It isn't YOUR privacy that they are worried about. How about all of the people around you that are now being "photographed" on a regular basis. My wife HATES having her picture taken. Now anyone wearing glasses might be taking her picture 20 times a second. At least if they go to pull the camera out she has a chance to say "No thank you - I prefer not to have my picture taken".

I'm not even going to go into all of the places that you shouldn't be taking pictures anyway (locker rooms, gyms, dr. office, the list goes on)

Predicted even before the transistor was invented

[ron_ivi]

Vannevar Bush wrote an excellent article called As we May Think in 1945 predicting this invention.

<i>The camera hound of the future wears on his forehead a lump a little larger than a walnut. It takes pictures 3 millimeters square, later to be projected or enlarged, which after all involves only a factor of 10 beyond present practice. The lens is of universal focus, down to any distance accommodated by the unaided eye, simply because it is of short focal length. There is a built-in photocell on the walnut such as we now have on at least one camera, which automatically adjusts exposure for a wide range of illumination. There is film in the walnut for a hundred exposures, and the spring for operating its shutter and shifting its film is wound once for all when the film clip is inserted. It produces its result in full color. It may well be stereoscopic, and record with two spaced glass eyes, for striking improvements in stereoscopic technique are just around the corner.
</i>

Interestingly, in the same article, he predicted the CD Rom, the Internet, Wikipedia, Color Photography -- well before the first dry cameras or the first computers.

Not a new idea: Deja View

[ayeco]

This is not a new idea. This DejaView Camera keeps a buffer of 30 seconds.

Deja View's Camwear Model 100 captures everything you see, records it in a buffer so you never miss that moment! Simply press the record button and the last 30 seconds of video with audio will write to a removable storage device.

The Deja View Camwear Model 100 easily clips to your glasses or hat is constantly buffering 30 seconds of what you experience while wearing our product. With one simple press of a button, the camera will record a 30 second video with audio in 320X240 CIF in the latest MPEG-4 technology! The file is saved to a SD Memory card (64MB provided) upgradeable to 512MB (optional). The file is easily stored and transferred to a computer or when played in Video out mode, can be recorded directly through a VCR or viewed right on your TV screen! USB connection for computer or remove SD memory card and view it in an SD reader (not included).

Same article predicted the Calculator and the Borg

[ron_ivi]

The quotes for the Borg...

Must we always transform to mechanical movements in order to proceed from one electrical phenomenon to another? It is a suggestive thought, but it hardly warrants prediction without losing touch with reality and immediateness.

... and the prediction of the electronic calculator ...

Adding is only one operation. To perform arithmetical computation involves also subtraction, multiplication, and division ...The advanced arithmetical machines of the future will be electrical in nature, and they will perform at 100 times present speeds, or more.

(Electrical calculators will run 100 times or more the speed of the 1940's mechanical ones almost deserves a funny mod.) But he's definately the most visionary scientist I've ever heard of. Without even knowing about a transistor, he identified most of the important electronic technologies that we use today.

Seeing the great success of his other preditions (calculators, internet, etc) I think this _is_ the future of digital photography.

David Brin

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I think this shows up in David Brin's "Earth". He called them "Tru-Vue Goggles", or something similar.

Two tangential comments:

Perhaps the glasses could monitor the
wearer's brain activity and only store a
frame when it detects a strong reaction to
what's being viewed.

There was a public outcry when photography
was invented, when Goerge Eastman marketed
it to the public, when X-rays were discovered,
etc. The uproar over these is nothing new.

Right to Photograph

[ejaw5]

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

Basically, if you're in a public area you can't stop someone from photographing you (though you could ask not to be) nor can anyone stop you from taking pictures in public areas. This includes buildings and "people/street watching" ...although having a camera snapping away constantly isn't exactly "Photography" IMO.

EyeTap

[SushiFugu]

This sounds alot like what Prof. Steve Mann and EyeTap have been experimenting with for a long time. They were featured on the TechTV show "Nerd Nation" not too long ago. Real interesting stuff.