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How the Camera Phone Changed the World
theodp writes "Ten years after the amazing Philippe Kahn married a cell phone and a digital camera to capture the birth of daughter Sophie, Slate takes a look at the impact of the camera phone, the gadget that perverts, vigilantes, and celebrity stalkers can all agree on. 'With this kind of device,' Kahn told Wired, 'you're going to see the best and the worst of things.'"
And people say gay marriage is unnatural!
And, I didn't know that Kahn is a minister.
Camera phones have such poor quality. Why don't you just buy a disposable one for a few bucks and save yourself some pain.
If only they'd put a crappy phone on a high-quality camera, I'd be set.
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I do a lot of business with companies who for security reasons will not let you take a camera phone onto their premises. I also have to leave mine at home when I go to parents evening just in case I might possibly take a picture of a school pupil.
Now, have you tried to get a non camera phone lately? Difficult to say the least.
If I want to take a picture then I get my Digital Camera out (Nikon D2x) and do it properly.
Current camera phones have the same quality as CCTV cameras did 10 years ago.
I'm sorry (and will probably get modded down as a troll) this is one invention I could certainly do without.
The good: as a tool to conveniently record crime or emergency. (in addition to quotidian snapshot use) The bad: abuse/invasion of privacy. neither: as tool to do work (as an evidentiary tool recording what one has done or has observed in a job role) So, the variable is intent.
But I still keep my cell phone picks. Pictures are mementoes for most people. That crazy night when me and the girls snuck into the basement of bio-sci just as it closed and rode around on carts and chucked dry ice into the toilets.... Those types of memories don't need a 20 megapixel roloflex camera. Thats what I use it for.. and also naughty photos. just too pervy pulling out a SLR to take those pictures. It makes girls a bit nervous.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
2003 called. It wants its criticisms of cameraphones back.
Here's the problem. The cellphone was supposed to make it easy for people to be reached on-the-move. For "security" reasons we are not allowed to use our phone everywhere, because the people who are taking photos of us and watching us on videos don't want us to take photos or videos of them (just count how many police brutality incidents on youtube also involve the rough handling of the guy capturing said incident on a camera). On european trains there are "quiet" zones where phones are banned, and if we use our phone on a plane then the phone will immediately detonate all of the explosive liquids stored in passenger's hand-luggage and cause sony lithium-ion batteries in apple G4 powerbooks to burst into flames.
Lastly, and even more importantly than plane death, upgrading the phone's camera just gives the mobile phone industry another excuse to charge you a higher subscription than the previous year.
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I think many people have a problem with the cell phone camera quality: If manufacturers bother putting a camera on a cell phone, they may as well have decent quality, right? Well, one thing that is overlooked with these cameras is the possibility of digital (panoramic and frame) stitching.
m .jpgi ty_of_books.jpg. jpgn .jpgg p gp g
m 1_corrected.jpg0 _corrected.jpg1 _corrected.jpga ny_corrected.jpgr ected.jpg
By using OSS such as Hugin and Enblend one can increase the resolution of images, add to the field of view and basically achieve the following results:
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/bedroo
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/divers
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/room33
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/jsd-va
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/car.jp
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/car3.j
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/ariz.j
Slightly wider shots:
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/livroo
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/par-ph
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/pan-ph
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/grandc
- http://www.cardope.com/misc/razr_panoramic/dd_cor
Please note that some of these processed images have not been color corrected with enblend - otherwise they would have turned out much better.
Megapixels is only half of the quality discussion.
A good camera has optical zoom, a bigger ccd (a bigger ccd at the same megapixel still gives a better picture), autofocus, etc.
Implementing this in a cell phone requires space.
Because there are so many companies with so many standards and technologies. Look at how many different audio formats there are for cell phones. It's like each handset had to come up with its own format that it would accept. Plus in America we use are cell phones for 2 things, making calls and texting. In other countries cell phones are used for everything, so the demand for richer and better features are higher.
Can I bum a sig?
Pertaining to this topic..
911 calls in NYC will activate the camera on mobile phones so people can send video of the emergency as it happens.
CNN usually gets images or video from peoples phones within minutes of the incident happening. The 911 people down in NYC just want the same data feed for emergencys..
Kill your TV
One problem with the disposable camera is that after you take an important picture, the camera can be 'confiscated' and your picture is gone too. With a camera phone, the picture can be emailed to the world before the 'bad guy' can take your phone away....
--jeffk++
ipv6 is my vpn
The advise of G.Gordon Liddy on his radio show echoes in my ear.
"All these traffic cameras are just another violation of your privacy and more governmental control.Take a bb gun and aim for the lens.Fight the power"
It was something to that effect.
Occasionally I fight the power.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
There are tons of phones without cameras. There is absolutely *no* problem whatsoever getting a phone that doesn't have a camera. Every time an article about cellphones comes up somebody cries out "Can't I just have a phone? One without a camera???", and every time the basic answers is that you damn well can.
Now the problem is that these people aren't asking if they can have a phone without a camera. And they know it. They want a phone that has WiFi, stereo bluetooth, a big high quality color screen, 3G, can play back every media file under the sun and better yet they can put custom software on and isn't locked to any provider... but not a camera. And that is where you do end up getting into "good luck, mate" territory.
Seriously - walk into a store, look on the web, check out office supplies stores (guess what - they sell cell phones that are literally no-frills so that employees can have a cheap company phone).. there are plenty of cell phones without a camera. And if that is their only argument, then they shouldn't complain that it is not a very fashionable design or that it only has a fixed-matrix black-and-white LCD display and they can't download the latest music onto it let alone watch that StarGate SG-1 they recorded to Ogg Theora.
One thing the camera phone has accomplished is a general 'dumbing down' of peoples sence of quality of photos, which has nearly killed the film camera industry.
:)
They get used to poor quality since its *everywhere*, and accept it as 'good enough' since its more convenient..
ya, its a rant.. so sue me
---- Booth was a patriot ----
The advise of G.Gordon Liddy on his radio show echoes in my ear. 'All these traffic cameras are just another violation of your privacy and more governmental control.Take a bb gun and aim for the lens.Fight the power'"
In other news today, policeman Adam Jones was suspended with pay yesterday pending the investigation of the shooting death of talk show host and third-rate Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy at the corner of 5th and Broad yesterday. "I thought he was brandishing a rifle at other motorists, Officer Jones said to reporters. "How was I supposed to know it was a Daisy rifle and he was just aiming at the traffic camera?"
Actually I'd say that's more Insightful than Funny. While I don't need 70% of the functionality on most modern handsets (phonecalls & texts, anything else is a waste) - a decent bloody camera in the same device (IE. a replacement for a decent point-n-click digicam, I'm not talking SLRs here) is something I would consider using.
Screw megapixels, I can't wait for the first Video/Camera/Handgun/Phone...
This would be a great combination, in theory. But do you really want to put a gun into a device that you frequently hold against your head? *Oops, wrong button!*
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
To me the greatest thing that camera phones (and cheap digital cameras in general) bring is a possible curb on government oppression. Around the world in both totalitarian regimes and democracies, people gather to protest about various government actions and decisions. In totalitarian regimes and sadly also in our democracies, these protests are often met with grossly excessive force from riot police. In democracies the police often wait until the media finish and leave before making their move on the protesters.
However, now that so many people have camera phones (even in non-democracies), it's much harder to get away with such oppression. All it takes is for one person to film a police officer beating an unarmed man cowering on the ground and it will be around the world very quickly.
I think this prevalence of cheap and portable video-capable devices has lead to a change of tactics in some countries. In an environment where everything the police do is being recorded on video, governments are seeking to avoid confrontation altogether. It has become increasingly popular to either herd protesters into "Free Speech Zones" (in the US) or just effectively ban protests altogether as is the case in the UK, for half a mile or so around parliament square.
In case you're wondering, I've never actually been on a protest myself. Like most people I am either too lazy or too scared of being clubbed by Police to attend (which is exactly the attitude governments like).
Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
Now the problem is that these people aren't asking if they can have a phone without a camera. And they know it. They want a phone that has WiFi, stereo bluetooth, a big high quality color screen, 3G, can play back every media file under the sun and better yet they can put custom software on and isn't locked to any provider... but not a camera. And that is where you do end up getting into "good luck, mate" territory.
So they're not just asking for a phone, they're asking for a good phone. Bastards. Should be hanged.
Fortunately, there is at least one such device. http://www.nokia.com/A4145124
There was the story of the guy who got robbed several times and thus kept a gun on his night table next to his phone. All was well until the phone rang late at night and he "answered" the wrong object.
-b.
Most high end phones used by serious people like blackberries etc have a NC model standing for no camera. On a related note the company I work for also bans camera phones but you can get a camera phone pass if you are at a certain job level. It has become a kind of status item. The untrusted masses have just ID cards. The intemediate have a camera phone pass , the executives have property passes which let them them take laptops in and out and the IT guy has a Gold pass which lets him move multi-million dollar servers in and out. Shows to go who on top :)
**Life is too short to be serious**
I took this photo with my phone last week as I walked to work. Nokia N80, 3mp. The original picture is bigger and sharper than the large one on flickr. As good as most pocket shooters, imho. Night time shots aren't great though.
Rocket science is easy. Neurosurgery, now *that's* difficult.
i dont need the added weight making my pants fall down.
Back in the day we solved this problem by buying pants that fit; although I admit it is amusing to watch the chavs trying to play basketball with one hand tied up in the problem of holding their pants up.
And extra amusing when one of them manages to trip over their own pants.
KFG
I'm personally pretty sick and tired of the use of megapixels as indicator for the quality of digital cameras and cameraphones. I pretty much bet that my older P&S digical camera (Canon Powershot G3) absolutely trounces any 4-megapixel camera phones in image quality, despite being released in 2002. It's even worse than the use of mega/gigahertzes and MIPSes for computer performance; the optics, size of individual photosites and other factors just have so much impact for image quality that it's downright silly to use a single figure to evaluate the image quality.
The above does not mean that I'd want phones with camera to disappear from the face of Earth; if the image quality is sufficient for somebodys needs, it's fine for me. I'd just like people to have some more informed bases for comparisons.
Everyone who makes generalizations should be shot.
It will give a new meaning to "point and shoot camera"
The thing is, there are people who would like a phone with other high end features, but can't have or don't want a camera phone. Most, if not all of the no-camera phones are very basic phones that are pretty stripped down. It would be trying to find a motherboard for a computer without integrated Firewire. There are plenty of boards out there that lack it, but try to find one with high end features like SATA Raid, gigabit eithernet, and PCI Express, but no Firewire.
This sounds like a service google could run--you snap a pic of the barcode, and your phone goes to a site where you read reviews about how great the product is/how much it sucks.
Do you mean this? (flickr stores the original if you upload it, even though they don't want to show it if you don't have a pro account).
It's larger alright. Sharper? Wouldn't say so, IMHO, it's much better at medium and large, the full resolution really brings out the flaws.
Purple fringing, almost all detail eaten by heavy noise reduction (look at the smaller tree branches, there's nothing but blur), badly overexposed sky. And that's in nigh perfect conditions.
It's pretty good for a phone picture, maybe it's on-par with cheapo pocket shooters, but it's nowhere near the good ones.
While this is true, what we REALLY need is further integration. The GUN-cameraphone would solve a ton of problems. We'd probably even have direct democracy, finally.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
get a Free BSD!