By Ian Burley
29th October - 2001
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A radical proposal for the future of digital photography has been proposed by Cambridge-based technology design consultancy, Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL). The company believes their advanced concept of a camera that functions as a dynamic wireless Internet peripheral, even to the point that no local memory storage is required, will eventually come true.
Because it ‘writes’ directly to the Internet, either to a remote server or via a bluetooth connection to a mobile, SEE offers infinite capacity and real time applications, according to CCL. SEE incorporates both video and stills options and the camera is UMTS (3rd generation mobile phone) enabled, so images stored on a server can be accessed anytime, anywhere (CCL’s words again).
Features on the palm size SEE camera include: a viewfinder with miniature LCD screen, a touch screen displaying the viewed image which can be edited using an integral ‘pen’. For example, messages can be written on the image, or particular area highlighted. This all sounds a little like Ricoh’s RDC-i700, which can already boast these features.
“The limits on file size and battery life can compromise the potential of digital cameras,” says Donna Wilson, Group Leader with CCL’s Product Definition team, who adds: “SEE has overcome both these problems by offering limitless capacity and ample battery life which will allow for around one hundred stills or half an hour of video.”
An attractive ergonomic design was also an important element in the development of SEE, as Donna Wilson explains: “SEE is aimed at image and style conscious individuals, people for whom technical innovation and design integrity go hand in hand.”
At the heart of SEE lies VideoCore, a flexible, low power chip developed by Alphamosaic, a recent spin out company from CCL. The VideoCore chip is designed to capitalise on the worldwide potential for full motion video in mobile devices.
SEE is the latest example of a pipeline of products designed at CCL. A previous concept product, the e-mail pen has been selected by the British Design Council to appear at its Great Expectations exhibition.
The proposed next generation digital camera called ‘SEE’, was designed by CCL’s in-house Product Definition team. The company goes so far as to make the bold calim that “SEE has the potential to revitalise the static digital camera market.”
That this market need revitalising was news to us. However, we should not dismiss CCL developments too lightly. The company has been the nursery for successful technologies like the ink-jet printer, round tea-bags and ‘widgets’ - those magic things in beer cans that makes the contents froth like draught beer.
http://www.cambridge-consultants.com
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