Previous news story Next news story

Founders of Memoto wearable camera capture 10,000 pictures at SXSW

Mar 13, 2013 at 22:16:55 GMT

OTHER NEWS CAMERA MEMOTO

Pin It

Print view

Founders of the GPS-equipped Memoto wearable camera, Martin Kallstrom and Oskar Kalmaru captured around 10,000 photographs at the SXSW music and film festival in Austin, Texas. This wearable square device made headlines when it surpassed its initial Kickstarter funding goal in just 5 hours. The Memoto camera automatically captures two 5MP geotagged photos every minute (one every 30 seconds) and the built-in accelerometer ensures pictures are turned to the correct orientation.

The tiny Memoto camera. Photo courtesy: All Things Digital.

Tech site All things Digital has posted an article about the Memoto and its creators, which is well worth reading. Speaking to the site about the SXSW project, Oskar Kalmaru went into detail about the images that were collected, saying that 'considering the frequency of shots, plenty of these were off-center, blurry, dark or black photos. Others were cool images of SXSWers crossing Sixth Street in Austin, with the sun bouncing off buildings and crisp blue skies in the background.'

Speaking about Memonto's subscription-based, photo-storage service, Kalmaru explained 'it smartly organizes your photos in a timeline, and chooses the best photo from a moment or an event. Tapping on that photo in the Memoto mobile app will reveal the collective photos from that event, but they’re not all cluttering your feed.'

What do you make of the Memonto? Let us know in the comments.

(via All Things Digital)

Click here to read the article on All Things Digital

Update: Click here to check out some pictures taken with the camera posted by The Next Web

Comments

Total comments: 24

I like to hike and something like this would be interesting to use to help locate certain areas on a hike that you want to mark with out having to get out the GPS mark a point, name it etc... all time consuming. When I'd rather be moving forward...

0 upvotes

Memoto brings you the perv cam at only $279 per unit. Watch what you watch.
The ultimate voyeur camera. Please hand out your privacy by ticking the box below.

0 upvotes

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. But I want one.

0 upvotes

10,000 pictures, 6 good ones.

1 upvote

It was only AFTER they took the 10,000 photos that they realized they forgot to remove the lens cap. D'oh!!!

4 upvotes

This article would be much more impressive if we could actually see some of these "Cool Images" but they are nowhere to be found.

4 upvotes

Why not just take a video?
And later, if you need, grab some frame and use it as photo.

0 upvotes

video would actually take more memory than necessary, and none of it would be 5MB resolution, but much lower, so one frame of video is low-res, perhaps too low for 'creative crops' as well.

however, advantage of video is shorter intervals between shot/frames and allow higher chance of a 'better' portrait, than a 'chance' shot relying on an intervalometer

if you were to do a 'video' that happen to achieve 10,000 face portraits, that would be a very large/huge video file(s) in MB!!!

probably more importantly is to have 'face recognition' software/algorithm built in so one need not rely on fixed intervals of 'every 30 seconds', an unrealistic way really, to hope one gets a good 'face pic' of a person when that 'fixed set' moment comes.

sdyue

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 3 minutes after posting

1 upvote

SOME professionals could use it – I think of the police, fire department and others, to catch serious and desperate situations. If nothing serious happened, they could just erase everything.

3 upvotes

They already have dash cams in almost every police car these days.

0 upvotes

interestingly enough, I read an article recently that says that in order for it to be used in court it needs to be 3 FPS minimum.

0 upvotes

Basically a gimmick camera and I wouldn't buy it, especially if I have to use their service to store the pictures. Besides, taking a picture every 30 seconds isn't all that great of an idea if you have to sift through them all.

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

The people using Instagram, Facebook & co don't appear to be that bothered by being locked into their respective services.

Heck, the entire concept of privacy and the dangers inherent in such systems is lost on the kind of people who buy into products like this.

0 upvotes

There have been tiny cameras in USB sticks for years now on ebay, I fail to see how this is any different. Whether it is motion-detect triggered picture or video or time-lapse recording, it's just a matter of software. What is so unique about this to warrant a fund-raising project? It is not even news-worthy! (except for those living under a rock for the past decade) Unless the fund raising project was just a publicity stunt...

Incidentally over a decade ago I owned a camera that was the size of half a usb stick (I have an old pic of me taking a picture in the mirror with it in my hand).

Comment edited 4 times, last edit 7 minutes after posting

3 upvotes

I saw something just like this being used by Barney in a 1967 or 1968 episode of the "Mission: Impossible" television series, I do believe. As cameras go, that one was much, much prettier.

0 upvotes

There may have been others with similar gadgets, but so far no one has had the marketing and luck these guys had.

It's Apple's iGadget-series all over again.

Clever marketing of an image has pretty much always guaranteed success despite the fact that the product itself might be inferior to what is available to geeks like us.

0 upvotes

I just want to ask:
1. Why no button ? at least On OFF
2. I wish there is interval control
4. I wish the design is better and also the clip
and also better if we can download photos for online viewing without renting the storage
and others

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 6 minutes after posting

1 upvote

Join the army instead...

This device isn't for photographers, it's for self obsessed hipsters bedevilled by the twin ills of a surfeit of free time and a lack of purpose in their lives.

People considering buying this product should go out and do something meaningful, such as join the army instead.

The Swedish army for example.

Sweden being the home of Memoto and of Martin Kallstrom knows all about vacant idle hipsters pretending to be artists. So much so that the Swedish army has made an recruitment ad aimed directly at them.

I advise all those tempted by this device to view it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3h_sOPUWc8

6 upvotes

Hilarious. Though I'm too old for service, somehow I see myself there. Not taking oneself too seriously is a good thing.

Thanks.

0 upvotes

So..........

Can we see any of these photos?

2 pointless articles.

0 upvotes

Did they eventually release the 10,000 photographers they captured? :)

6 upvotes

10,000 photos from an event means 9950 crappy photos to delete. Yay!

10 upvotes

It also means that you may have the lucky shot that you certainly would have missed by the time you had taken your 'real' camera out of your bag, adjusted the settings, found the perfect composition ...

0 upvotes

Or not... And maybe you missed 250 shots that you could take with a hand-held camera because the camera triggers every 30 seconds, not when it has a good perspective or an interesting composition. If you want to shoot away with a P&S or a DSLR you can do it too, and at least, you're still aiming.
And seriously... taking pictures for the sake of it??? It can be a fun project as far as art is concerned... But something I would buy and use??? No way, I don't want everything stupidly recorded, even when I take a picture on holidays, I try to think about it, for the other 90% of the stuff I see, well, we all have a brain, and well, it records what matters anyway.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 3 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

Total comments: 24


The Google Glass effect: How wearable camera tech will change everything Mar 28, 2013	Vision Research posts high-speed 4k video with Phantom Flex4K at 1000fps Apr 9, 2013	Lost camera reunited with owner after six years drifting in the ocean Mar 26, 2013	Minox announces tiny, retro-styled DCC 14.0 camera Mar 19, 2013

	Samsung NX2000 May 1, 2013
	Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX50V Apr 24, 2013
	Panasonic Lumix DMC-G6 Apr 24, 2013
	Panasonic Lumix DMC-LF1 Apr 24, 2013
	Ricoh GR Apr 17, 2013
	Samsung NX1100 Apr 11, 2013
	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF6 Apr 9, 2013
	Fujifilm FinePix S8400W Mar 22, 2013
	Fujifilm FinePix XP200 Mar 22, 2013
	Canon EOS 100D (EOS Rebel SL1) Mar 21, 2013
	Canon EOS 700D (EOS Rebel T5i) Mar 21, 2013
	Canon PowerShot SX270 HS Mar 21, 2013
	Canon PowerShot SX280 HS Mar 21, 2013

Recommended Photoshop Alternatives?	95
Adobe is WRONG!	88
Are we fooling ourselves?	75
From first effort at street.	68
Not completely satisfied with my X100S	57
Sold my RX100 - this is why	54
Lenses, sharpness, and image quality	52
All this Adobe flaming	51
M43 and DOF with a fast lens	45
24mp sensor for m43? 3.2micron pixel pitch!	44
When I increase the aperture my screen goes ...	42
Anybody out there who does not use Photoshop ...	42
Primes vs Zooms	41
A99 Short Film "Survival of the Fittest" Hi-ISO	41
Nikon 1 lens road map...anyone?	37
Alternative to Adobe software	35
Nikor 24-120 F4	32
Tempted by the price of the SAMYANG 14mm f2.8 ...	31
Colors in B/W!!!...	29
Is the GRD IV still a viable choice?	27

Your email address:
Your name: