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Philips Demos Keychain-sized Camcorder
mateub writes "Philips gave PC Magazine an exclusive demo of the KEY019 USB camera/camcorder etc. Sez PCMag: 'You can use the 128MB of internal memory for 2.0-megapixel still shots, digital video, MP3 files, and document storage.' How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?"
How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?
Just as soon as I can buy one...
That's a pretty sweet little toy. I wonder how much one of those costs... and how effective is it? I know there's probably a thousand different uses for something like that.
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128Megs doesnt seem like much. or if it is, the video is probably lo-fi
"How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?"
More importantly, how long until the torrent is posted?
This is great and all but who wants 2 megapixel anything? Camera phones, this device are create for getting quick shots, but honestly do you want to archive them? They simply don't look good, because the color is off, usually they're fuzzy etc...
I'm not knocking this device, but I have a feeling it's a sign of better devices to come. With in a year or 2 I would bet you start to see 4 and 5 megapixal devices like this... This is when they are really going to take off!
This sure does top the JB1 camera that ThinkGeek sells.
As per the "choice" footage and pictures, this has already happened with the new camera phones. Mobileasses.com or something to that order.
And record the people who decide to strip search you at the airport.
Add something like this to a radio controlled model airplane and you've got a (relatively) cheap platform for surveillance or air survey work. Could have uses in archeology as well.
Cameras are getting smaller and smaller anyways. I don't know what advantage having it on your keychain does for any kind of voyeurism. Just turn on your TV and you'll bump into one of those hidden-camera comedy shows. How long before we're getting all of those in HDTV? It's really not hard to film without being noticed.
:)
We all just have to get used to it. We're going to be recorded everywhere we go in public and our friends are going to get thousands of horrible photos of us.
I just have a regular 3 megapixel camera and already have something like 10,000 photos saved. My friends have cameras too and take just as many photos. I know there must be bad / 'compromising' (lol) photos of me I haven't seen but really it's no big deal. We all just finally need to get used to it and stop being so fricken camera shy!
Smile
...is the whole camera. All the pics are close-ups. My guess is because it's actually about 2ft long and they don't want to scare us off.
;-)
cLive
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
" How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?""
This is much more likely if they add a vibrator mode to the thing.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
See, the thing I always wonder when people bring up this topic is this - the technology to record people without their permission has been here for a while. Be it photographic, video, or audio, there have been accessible means to invade someone's privacy for quite a number of years.
What devices like this represent are a proliferation of this technology. And the uses to which it is put is not a problem of the technology, it's a problem of society.
Free iPods - now in the UK!
2 megapixels is sufficient for most applications. Remember, the digital camera on the Mars Rover is only 1 megapixel. If you need to take higher quality picture / movies, buy a higher quality piece of hardware. Something tells me that the truly useful applications for this type of device (e.g. clandestine) do not cry out for super-high quality photos.
It's also good for getting that quick shot of your buddy spewing chunks because who carries around a big digital camera everywhere they go? This you can keep with you at all times.
I hope we don't see more of these things in the future. Do these companies have focus groups? What focus group with any sanity decided they wanted a camcorder with 5 or so minutes of storage? More likely they wanted a camera that could record a video (maybe) but that isn't the way this thing is being marketed. Just because you can easilly and cheaply add features to existing products doesn't mean you have to promote them and market them as primary functions. (Camera phones anyone?)
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
There are some nice pictures and such in a Philip press release at:e bit2004-568.html
http://www.press.ce.philips.com/press/2004-2-23-C
Where?! Anybody got a .torrent??
Does that mean we won't be able to have our keys out in the gym anymore? Last night my fiancée called me as I was dressing and the locker room attendant politely asked me to put my cell phone away because people were afraid of getting their pictures taken with the camera phones. Now will there be a reason to limit, if not to start searching our bags everywhere we go.
[128 megs] Isn't nearly enough for the sex video!
Whoa, slow down there, pr0n star! Some of us have jobs, and lots of stress. 128 megs might easily store two or three...
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
"Honey, where's the video camera?"
"It's with the car keys."
(pauses to look for the car keys)
"Fsck!"
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
I bet they don't have a high-pass filter on the CCD, so they'd be infrared sensitive. You could illuminate with an IR led, and no one would even see the light source.
If I had a nickel for every time I've said, "Damn, I wish I had a camera," I'd already have enough nickels to pay for the thing.
Ok i know the world needs more food and medicine than anything else but we should send loads of these things to countries like china, iraq, america & cuba etc where there are oppressive regiemes in oparation, they could be used to capture countless numbers of human rights atrocities! Yes i know they're all made in china.
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We don't want to see inappropriate footage of solo acts performed in your basement.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?
but for the people who sport tin foil, realize that certain government agencies have had much better mini video cameras for quiet a while...
...it sounds great, but it is $100 more expensive than the Gateway (the current best buy for tapeless camcorders, because it's not $800 like most). It has double the memory, but lacks a card slot (and an LCD display). So for it's value, well, I'd say they're both good buys for people who want an ultra-cheap camcorder that's small (these things go for convienience and such, not for super-high quality) and just fun. I'll probably buy one of these things just so I can always have a camcorder around to take video of stuff that happens (I don't want to have my "real" camcorder with me all the time). For now, that's really what I see the market for these (and, say, camcorder phones) is - when these things have hard drives, well, then they might be more of a viable alternative to a "real" camcorder. But like them a lot now - they're tiny, cheap, and you can always have them with you to capture life - in all its spontaneity.
The KEY007 is marketed as 1.3MP, but it only has a 0.3MP sensor, and the images are upscaled to 1.3MP. All I see is "2MP sized images", nothing about what the sensor really is? Nowhere does the press release mention the sensor size, only that it produces 2 megapixel images. My gut feeling tells me that this is a 0.3MP camera, or maybe if we are very lucky, a 1.3MP camera, that is upscaled to 2MP. I'd love to be wrong.
She loves me: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 She loves me not: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688BF
Link to pre-order
That version had just a passive lens viewfinder; this new version has an electronic microdisplay that lets you see previously recorded videos or pictures. That ought to rise the price quite a bit.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
I think the band referred to would probably be Far Red, sorta but not really visible but not quite IR yet, some TV remotes you can see a very slight flicker from the emitter of the remote when pushing a button,
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
The 1.3 MP is actually 0.3MP
r ings_additional_info.cfml
see http://www.doyourthing.philips.com/tt_camera_key_
How does it work?
Your Camera Key Ring captures pictures using a VGA sensor, which displays about 300,000 pixels (640 x 480). When you upload the pictures to your laptop or PC, Photo Manager automatically enhances your images using digital interpolation to 1.3 million pixels.
One of the topics that came up late one night in college was what life would be like if everybody was highly telepathic. You would have little if any privacy, and it would be impossible to lie to anybody. So politics and personal relationships would be radically different from what they are. It strikes me that the potential to be recorded in detail at any time might have a big impact on society. People could carry these things around to cover their asses or gather blackmail material. Crooked politicians would be unable to trust anybody, which might be a good thing. In fact, the degree to which our lawmakers freak out about this particular technology being in the public's hands is probably a good indicator of how dirty they are.
I have one of the early thumb drive/camera combos. I notice that many of them need a lot of light to take a picture. Mine won't even let you try to take a picture in dim lighting. Outdoors, they work OK.
How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?
No, the real question is, "How long until I don't get to carry around my keychain flash drive because someone thinks it's a camera?"
bash: rtfm: command not found
How long before we read the first story of some, um, inappropriate footage captured with one of these?"
I'd only look at a KEY019 for the articles!