Wifi Camera Uploads without Computer

* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us NewsDay is reporting that Kodak has released the first "computer-free wireless camera." The new widget can connect directly to the Internet wherever there's Wi-Fi available to download and e-mail pictures. Users can even use the camera to view photos stored in Internet photo albums via Kodak's Easyshare Gallery service.

Comments

Re:What's the big deal?

[John Nowak]

Your cellphone has a multi-mega pixel resolution and doesn't require a service plan? Wow.

and e-mail pictures.

[MavEtJu]

and e-mail pictures

When will people understand that SMTP isn't a file transport medium?

Re:and e-mail pictures.

[CdBee]

Everyone who uses gmail as a low-tech backup medium might disagree with you.

Its flawed but not everyone can securely configure a remote file-server. Email's a tool that's universally available to net-connected people, and the rise of large inboxes makes it highly practical.

Re:and e-mail pictures.

[Ziviyr]

Its a text transport medium. Files are ground up into text and stuck in it. It is inefficient at best, and doesn't change the nature of the medium at all.

Tactical possibilities in conflict situations

[Kream]

Coming from a country where major riots and civil disturbances have flared up several times in a decade, and where the electoral process in certain areas is inflected with violence, this may be a very positive development.

Visual documentation of violence, including street violence, is something that is very powerful in these circumstances. A network of WiFi cameras that connects to a battery-powered wireless switch(es) could turn this into an extremely powerful journalistic tool.

Journalists, especially some very courageous ones, have had their (expensive) equipment seized and smashed - even by the police. In effect, the very act of powerfull and provocative reportage causes the reportage to be fuitless. A couple of cheap wireless cameras clipped onto someone's lapel or mounted in places where there is a clear field of view could provide (highly incriminating?) video data even upto the moment the cameras were destroyed.

And think of the possibilities for exposing corruption. If you were to go to, say, a police station where you knew a bribe would be demanded of you, with the intent of secretly filming the proceedings, you'd be banking on the camera remaining undetected and being able to take the recording away with you. With a WiFi camera broadcasting to an Internet-connected laptop(s) across the street, things change quickly :)

Cheers,

Aniruddha "Karim" Shankar

Re:Tactical possibilities in conflict situations

[DrXym]

Except of course now you're expecting there to be wifi spots at the same places there are riots and civil disturbances. It's hard enough to find wifi access at the best of times, let alone in a pitched battle rolling back and forth between streets. And if there were, no doubt you'd have to stand quite still while your pics were uploaded which wouldn't necessarily be convenient at the time. If that weren't unlikely enough a totalitarian state is likely to have little internet access or extremely restricted access. On top of that is Kodak itself. Their site probably pitches itself as "family friendly" so you can bet that any civil disobediance pics would be wiped off their site without a second's thought.

I wouldn't diss the idea completely - after all if your camera would connect to an ad-hoc network you could perhaps arrange for someone with a PDA or small laptop to shadow you at some distance and broadcast the pics back to them, but it would still be an awkward arrangement. And its doubtful that this camera would help you do that.

Perhaps it's simpler and equally effective to use redundancy - multiple photographers, with each passing their filled memory cards to runners.

Re:Tactical possibilities in conflict situations

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Bring the wireless with you. It wouldnt be the most efficient (or cheap), but if you had the right cellphone/pda/laptop/external aentenna/wireless router combo sitting in your car, you'd be able to take unlimited[1] pictures and have them stored remotely before anyone can destroy your setup.

[1] Atleast, a lot more than you could get out of a conventional rig. You don't want to slap in a new roll of film or another memory card in the middle of something like this. Hopefully this will be hackable enough that people can create stuff to upload only locally, so that all you would need would be a wireless router in your car and a network storage device.

Good for demonstrations

[putko]

One problem at demonstrations is that the cops attempt to seize and destroy images (video/cameras) made by people there attempting to document abuses by the cops.

This would solve that problem -- realtime uploading of the images to a location where the cops can't get them.

This doesn't apply to America, where cops are all lawful and good (/sarc) -- but rather, to countries that have repressive governments and no free exchange of information.

Re:That's interesting, but...

[neonstz]

Well, with $5000 for the camera and $500 for the wireless addon, I don't think the target audiences for the D2X and the kodak product don't overlap.

The D2X is one heck of a camera, and if I ever get the money I'll replace my D70 with one...

Re:We'll see.

[DJCF]

Most people don't like PCs -- they see them as slow and ugly behemoths, and most of them don't work without crashing every five minutes (spyware, etc.). That's why there is a percieved 'demand' for devices which bypass the computer.

It...really... annoys me.