• “Blind Camera” Doesn’t Take Pictures, Retrieves Others’ Shots Instead

    Devin Coldewey

    Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

    Monday, August 1st, 2011

    This is an interesting little concept/design piece that’s more about the act of taking pictures than, you know, actually taking pictures. The Buttons camera isn’t fitted with a lens or any way to take a shot at all — but it’s shaped like a camera and has a “shutter” button and LCD screen. You hit the button and after a while a picture will show up, but there’s a little more to it than that.

    When you hit the button, it begins searching the net for a picture, any picture, taken at that exact moment. The picture might show up after a minute or two, or maybe not for hours. Not very useful as far as an entertainment device, but it’s kind of fun to think about: somebody, somewhere, pressed that button at the same time you did. And the only reason you know that, and saw the picture, is because you pressed your button then.

    The device isn’t going to be sold or anything, obviously, it’s more of a bit of conceptual art than anything, but the overlap with the gadget world seems to make it relevant. More info here and some videos that nearly crashed my browser.

    [via OhGizmo]