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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.""

26 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Load of junk by Sowbug · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...but you're also going to get a load of junk"

    If by "a load of junk" you mean "a lot of pictures of people pointing at your goofy-looking glasses and laughing," then you're absolutely right.

    1. Re:Load of junk by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 5, Funny
      "...but you're also going to get a load of junk"

      I think by "load of junk" they mean it's a Compaq/HP product.

      --
      "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  2. junk eh? by AssProphet · · Score: 4, Funny

    "you're not going to miss any moments, but you're also going to get a load of junk."

    wow I guess they're right... most of my life is a load of junk.
    But what if you gave this camera to those guys on the MountainDew or Surge commercials who only do exciting things constantly?

  3. Battery Life? by Ulky · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hmm...intesting idea... need some big batteries..

    1. Re:Battery Life? by Alcohol+Fueled · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are those your batteries, or are you happy to see me? :-)

      --
      Ah am not a crook! (\(-__-)/)
  4. similar thing posted already by radixvir · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:similar thing posted already by rokzy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >If someone says "hey look over there" and that thing is gone, you're still screwed.

      not at all. that's where THEIR camera comes in useful.

  5. slashdot by ispepalocacoc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sadly, all I would get are many many screenshots of slashdot.

    --
    I Love Alberta Beef
  6. Great... by jamonterrell · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I'll have to sift through 1000s of google responses when I search for anything containing nothing more than someone unimportant opinion, with 10,000 pictures of their boring life scattered throughout. Oh wait, blogging already does this, it's just going to get worse with the pictures to document things no one really cares about.

    On the serious side, this is, in my opinion, the resolution of a problem that doesn't exist. It's very cool, it just isn't a very needed product.

    Jamon

    --
    I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
  7. I already have these by GillBates0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I like to call them "eyes".

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  8. Privacy Issues? by AtOMiCNebula · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, it may create some privacy issues...if it's storing it at some central HP or public database. If it's just recording it to some internal storage drive, and then you move the footage to your hard drive or somewhere else, then what's the problem?? I'm not trying to troll, but why is this such a big deal?

    Is it just me, or is the paranoia level going up these days...

    1. Re:Privacy Issues? by MerlynEmrys67 · · Score: 4, Informative
      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)

      --
      I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
    2. Re:Privacy Issues? by System.out.println() · · Score: 5, Funny

      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)


      I think you just...um.... did. :)

    3. Re:Privacy Issues? by Angry+Pixie · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If it's just recording it to some internal storage drive, and then you move the footage to your hard drive or somewhere else, then what's the problem?
      That's precisely the problem. I don't know about the quality of the photos this camera can produce. I'm thinking the resolution will be lower than what you could achieve with a regular digital camera due to the automated nature of the camera and its limited storage space, but that's irrelevent. The fact is, a photo can be taken of a person without that person's consent or knowledge.

      There are a lot of girl-watching hobbyists out there who have been aided by digital cameras and camera-cell phone combos. Some upload the images to newsgroups or to commercial sites catering in upskirt candids. I've had my photo taken by complete strangers on the streets, the beach, and in nightclubs. I personally don't mind some guy "enjoying" a photo of me in the privacy of his own home, but it's reasonable that other women would have a problem. My privacy concerns are with the photo being uploaded to a public site without my knowledge or permission, especially if said site had a sexual or voyeuristic tone. My biggest privacy concern however is with abuses of the technology by law enforcement agencies and the government, or just nosy neighbors who enjoy spying on others. There is also the possibility that the photographer has a more nefarious scheme; that I'm intended to be more than a pretty face and nice legs for one's personal candid delight. The point is, I'd have no idea what the photographer's intentions were, nor would I even know I was being filmed or spied on.

  9. Photo-Worthy? by Dr.+GeneMachine · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I don't think so. The worth of a photograph or a film usually stems not only from the scene or event documented, but from the composition of the scene, from the thought of the photographer, freezing a particular moment in a particular perspective. This will mostly lead to an even mightier flood of crappy pictures no one really wants to see.

    And yes, you can pry my mechanical Yashica and my black and white films from my cold, dead fingers...

    --
    This comment does not exist.
  10. dont have to keep loads of junk by ch-chuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    just have the camera always on, but discarding anything over a minute or two. Then when something happens you want to keep press the button and the last two minutes are saved, plus what happens as you watch.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
    1. Re:dont have to keep loads of junk by ccnull · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sounds like TiVo for the soul.

  11. Social considerations by Kobayashi+Maru · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder, at times it seems technology gets a pass, just because it is complicated.

    Though the article mentions privacy concerns, it is stuff away between a half-dozen other headings. All technology is nothing more than tools. It is the context that gives the tool its meaning. And in this case, the social context of the tool should very much be weighed against the abilitity to "never miss an important moment." Who defines important? And who defines what *should* be recorded, and what should not be recorded? The social implications of all technology deserve more consideration than they currently recieve, I think.

  12. Predicted even before the transistor was invented by ron_ivi · · Score: 5, Informative
    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.

  13. Re:Big News Today by truthgun · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Stranger things have happened. I still can't see why webcams are popular.


    Bceause they make phone sex so much more interesting.

    --
    Sattinger's Law: It works better if you plug it in.
  14. Re:Predicted even before the transistor was invent by ron_ivi · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Also, there's a direct link between Vannevar Bush and HP! Fred Terman (well described as the Father of Silicon Valley) , the Stanford prof who inspired Hewlett and Packard to start a company in Silicon Valley, was himself a student of Vannvar Bush.

    This connection makes it wonderfully poetic to see this invention coming from HP.

  15. Not a new idea: Deja View by ayeco · · Score: 5, Informative

    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).

  16. Re:Muder in the DC area... by cjjjer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Atleast the police would have the evidence that it was her who did it as long as she didn't hit the camera while plunging the knife into your chest.

  17. Right to Photograph by ejaw5 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --

    $cat /dev/random > Sig
  18. 1973 precedent by sakusha · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I remember attending a panel discussion at a Leica School of Photography seminar in 1973, photographer Robert Heinecken declared that in the future there would be always-on cameras, sort of like eyeglasses, with a massive memory storage (he suggested holographic memory because that was the cutting edge of research at the time). You'd be able to pick out any moment of time and pull up a stored photo of what you were seeing at that moment. The other panelists disagreed vehemently and said it was impossible, it would never happen.

  19. bathroom breaks... by Transcendent · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...oh those should be fun with this on... Just try not to look down that much.