Camera phone

The camera phone solution allows instant sharing of pictures. As it's automatic and instant, the user does not have to use a cable or removable media to connect to a personal computer.

A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture still photographs (and usually video). Since early in the 21st century the majority of mobile phones in use are camera phones.^[1]

Most camera phones are simpler than separate digital cameras. Their usual fixed-focus lenses and smaller sensors limit their performance in poor lighting. Lacking a physical shutter, most have a long shutter lag. Flash, where present, is usually weak. Optical zoom^[2] and tripod screws are rare. Some also lack a USB connection, removable memory card, or other way of transferring their pictures more quickly than by the phone's inherent communication feature.

The first camera phone was sold in 2000 in Japan, a J-Phone model, about a decade after the first digital camera was sold in Japan in December 1989. ^[3]

Some of the more expensive camera phones have only a few of these technical disadvantages, which apply most acutely in low light conditions and in any case have not inhibited their widespread use. Most model lines improve in these regards every year or two. Some, such as the Droid Incredible only have a menu choice to start an application program to activate the camera.^[4] Others, such as the BlackBerry Storm 2, Droid X, Motorola V980 and Nokia 5800 also have a separate camera button for quickness and convenience. Windows Phones can be configured to operate as a camera even if the phone is asleep. Some camera phones are designed to resemble separate low-end digital compact cameras in appearance and to some extent in features and picture quality, and are branded as both mobile phones and cameras, including certain Sony phones.

The principal advantages of camera phones are cost and compactness; indeed for a user who carries a mobile phone anyway, the additional size and cost are negligible. Smartphones that are camera phones may run mobile applications to add capabilities such as geotagging and image stitching. A few high end phones can use their touch screen to direct their camera to focus on a particular object in the field of view, giving even an inexperienced user a degree of focus control exceeded only by seasoned photographers using manual focus.

Technology

Some camera phones use CMOS image sensors, due to largely reduced power consumption compared to CCD type cameras, which are also used.

Images are usually saved in the JPEG file format, and the wireless infrastructure manages the sharing. The lower power consumption prevents the camera from quickly depleting the phone's battery.

History

The Nokia N8 smartphone is the first Nokia smartphone with a 12-megapixel autofocus lens, and is one of the few camera phones (the first was Nokia N82) to feature Carl Zeiss optics with xenon flash.

The camera phone, like many complex systems, is the result of converging and enabling technologies. There are dozens of relevant patents dating back as far as 1956. Compared to digital cameras of the 1990s, a consumer-viable camera in a mobile phone would require far less power and a higher level of camera electronics integration to permit the miniaturization.

The CMOS active pixel sensor "camera-on-a-chip" developed by Dr. Eric Fossum and his team in the early 1990s achieved the first step of realizing the modern camera phone as described in a March 1995 Business Week article. While the first camera phones, as successfully marketed by J-Phone in Japan, used CCD sensors and not CMOS sensors, more than 90% of camera phones sold today use CMOS image sensor technology.

Over the years there have been many videophones and cameras that have included communication capability. Some devices experimented with integration of the device to communicate wirelessly with Internet, which would allow instant media sharing with anyone anywhere. For example, in 1995 Apple experimented with the Apple Videophone/PDA.^[5] There were several digital cameras with cellular phone transmission capability shown by companies such as Kodak, Olympus in the early 1990s.^[6] There was also a digital camera with cellular phone designed by Shosaku Kawashima of Canon in Japan in May 1997.^[7]

On June 11, 1997, Philippe Kahn shared instantly the first pictures from the maternity ward where his daughter Sophie was born. He wirelessly transmitted his cell phone pictures to more than 2,000 family, friends and associates around the world. Kahn's wireless sharing software and camera integrated into his cell phone augured the birth of instant visual communications.^[8][9] Kahn's cell phone transmission is the first known publicly shared picture via a cell phone.^[10]

In Japan, two competing projects were run by Sharp and Kyocera in 1997. Both had cell phones with integrated cameras. However, the Kyocera system was designed as a peer-to-peer video-phone as opposed to the Sharp project which was initially focused on sharing instant pictures. That was made possible when the Sharp devices was coupled to the Sha-mail infrastructure designed in collaboration with American technologist, Kahn. The Kyocera team was led by Mr. Kazumi Saburi.^[11]

In 1995, work by James Greenwold of Bureau Of Technical Services, in Chippewa Falls, WI, was developing a pocket video camera for surveillance purposes. By 1999, the Tardis recorder was in prototype and being used by the government. Bureau Of Technical Services, advanced further by the patent # 6,845,215,B1 on Body-Carryable, digital Storage medium, Audio/Video recording Assembly.

Cameras on cell phones proved popular right from the start, as indicated that the J-Phone in Japan had more than half of its subscribers using cell phone cameras in two years. The world soon followed. By 2003, more camera phones were sold worldwide than stand-alone digital cameras. In 2005, Nokia became the world's most sold digital camera brand. In 2006, half of the world's mobile phones had a built-in camera. ^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, Thuraya released the first satellite phone with an integrated camera. The Thuraya SG-2520 was manufactured by a Korean company called APSI and ran Windows CE.

By 2007, the first cell phones and other consumer products appeared using the Tardis technology to make the move from still cameras to full motion video.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Nokia sold more camera phones than Kodak sold film based simple cameras, thus becoming the biggest manufacturer of any kind of camera.

In 2010, the worldwide number of camera phones totaled more than a billion.^[12] Most mobile phones, even inexpensive ones, were being sold with a camera. High end camera phones usually had a relatively good lens and high resolution, but a small sensor.

Twelve-megapixel camera phones have been produced by at least two companies.^[13][14] To highlight the capabilities of the Nokia N8 (Big CMOS Sensor) camera, Nokia created a short film, The Commuter, in October 2010. The seven-minute film was shot entirely on the phone's 720p camera. A 14-megapixel smartphone with 3x optical zoom was announced in 2010.^[15]

In 2012, Nokia announced Nokia 808 PureView. It features a 41-megapixel 1/1.2-inch sensor and a high-resolution f/2.4 Zeiss all-aspherical 1-group lens. It also features Nokia's PureView Pro technology, a pixel oversampling technique that reduces an image taken at full resolution into a lower resolution picture, thus achieving higher definition and light sensitivity, and enables lossless zoom.

In mid-2013, Nokia announced the Nokia Lumia 1020. It had an improved version of the 41-megapixel sensor and ran Windows Phone 8 unlike the 808 PureView which was the last phone to run Nokia's Symbian OS.

Multimedia Messaging Service

Camera phones can share pictures almost instantly and automatically via a sharing infrastructure integrated with the carrier network. Early developers including Philippe Kahn envisioned a technology that would enable service providers to "collect a fee every time anyone snaps a photo."^[8] The resulting technologies, Multimedia Messaging Service and Sha-Mail were developed parallel to and in competition to open Internet based mobile communication provided by GPRS and later 3G networks.

The closed sharing infrastructure was critical and explains the early successes of J-Phone, DoCoMo in Japan, Sprint, and other carriers worldwide.

The first commercial camera phone complete with infrastructure was the J-SH04, made by Sharp Corporation, had an integrated CCD sensor, with the Sha-Mail (Picture-Mail in Japanese) infrastructure developed in collaboration with Kahn's LightSurf venture, and marketed from 2001 by J-Phone in Japan today owned by Softbank.

The first commercial deployment in North America of camera phones was in 2004. The Sprint wireless carriers deployed over one million camera phone manufactured by Sanyo and launched by the PictureMail infrastructure (Sha-Mail in English) developed and managed by LightSurf.

Users of early camera phones were held captive by the MMS business model. While phones had internet connectivity, working web browsers and email-programs, the phone menu offered no way of including a photo in an email or uploading it to a web site. Connecting cables or removable media that would enable the local transfer of pictures were also usually missing.

Modern smartphones have more connectivity and transfer options with photograph attachment features.

Manufacturers

Major manufacturers include Toshiba, Sharp, Nokia, Sanyo, Samsung, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Mobile, and LG Electronics. Resolution is typically in the range of one tenth to one half as many megapixels as contemporary low end compact digital cameras.^{[citation needed]}

Major manufacturers of cameras for phones include Toshiba, ST Micro, Sharp, Omnivision, and Aptina.^{[citation needed]}

External camera

Taking a photograph with cell phone.

During 2003 as camera phones were gaining popularity in Europe some phones without cameras had support for MMS and external cameras that could be connected with a small cable or directly to the data port at the base of the phone. The external cameras were comparable in quality to those fitted on regular camera phones at the time, typically offering VGA resolution.

Social impact

Personal photography allows people to capture and construct personal and group memory, maintain social relationships as well as expressing their identity.^[16] The hundreds of millions^[17] of camera phones sold every year provide the same opportunities, yet these functions are altered and allow for a different user experience. As mobile phones are constantly carried, camera phones allow for capturing moments at any time. Mobile communication also allows for immediate transmission of content (for example via Multimedia Messaging Services), which cannot be reversed or regulated.

While phones have been found useful by tourists and for other common civilian purposes, as they are cheap, convenient, and portable; they have also posed controversy, as they enable secret photography. A user may pretend to be simply talking on the phone or browsing the internet, drawing no suspicion while photographing a person or place illegally or against that person's wishes.

As a network-connected device, megapixel camera phones are playing significant roles in crime prevention, journalism and business applications as well as individual uses. They can also be used for activities such as voyeurism, invasion of privacy, and copyright infringement. Because they can be used to share media almost immediately, they are a potent personal content creation tool. On January 17, 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a plan to encourage people to use their camera-phones to capture crimes happening in progress or dangerous situations and send them to emergency responders. Through the program, people will be able to send their images or video directly to 911.^[18]

Enforcing bans on camera phones has proven nearly impossible. They are small and numerous and their use is easy to hide or disguise, making it hard for law enforcement and security personnel to detect or stop use.

From time to time, organizations and places have prohibited or restricted the use of camera phones and other cameras because of the privacy, security, and copyright issues they pose. Such places include the Pentagon, federal and state courts,^[19] museums, schools, theaters, and local fitness clubs. Saudi Arabia, in April 2004, banned the sale of camera phones nationwide for a time before reallowing their sale in December 2004 (although pilgrims on the Hajj were allowed to bring in camera phones). There is the occasional anecdote of camera phones linked to industrial espionage and the activities of paparazzi, as well as some hacking into wireless operators' network.

Camera phones have also been used to discreetly take photographs in museums, performance halls, and other places where photography is prohibited. However, as sharing can be instantaneous, even if the action is discovered, it is too late, as the image is already out of reach, unlike a photo taken by a digital camera that only stores images locally for later transfer.

In Ireland the annual "RTE 60 second short award" was won by 15-year-old Laura Gaynor, who made her winning cartoon,"Piece of Cake" on her Sony Ericsson C510 camera phone.

In 2012, Director/writer Eddie Brown Jr, made the reality thriller "Camera Phone" which is one of the first commercial produced movies using camera phones as the story's prospective. The film is a reenactment of an actual case and they changed the names to protect those involved.

Notable events involving camera phones

• The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was the first global news event where the majority of the first day news footage was no longer provided by professional news crews, but rather by citizen journalists, using primarily camera phones.
• On November 17, 2006, during a performance at the Laugh Factory comedy club, comedian Michael Richards was recorded responding to hecklers with racial slurs by a member of the audience using a camera phone. The video was widely circulated in television and internet news broadcasts.
• On December 30, 2006, the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was recorded by a video camera phone, and made widely available on the Internet. A guard was arrested a few days later.^[20]
• Camera phone video and photographs taken in the immediate aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings were featured worldwide. CNN executive Jonathan Klein predicts camera phone footage will be increasingly used by news organizations.
• Camera phone digital images helped to spread the 2009 Iranian election protests.
• Camera phones recorded the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant.

Camera as an interaction device

The cameras of smartphones are used as input devices in numerous research projects and commercial applications. A commercially successful example is the use of QR Codes attached to physical objects. QR Codes can be sensed by the phone using its camera and provide an according link to related digital content, usually a URL. Another approach is using camera images to recognize objects. Content-based image analysis is used to recognize physical objects such as advertisement posters^[21] to provide information about the object. Hybrid approaches use a combination of unobstrusive visual markers and image analysis. An example is to estimate the pose of the camera phone to create a real-time overlay for a 3D paper globe.^[22] On recent camera phones it is even feasible to provide an augmented reality overlay for 2D objects^[23] and to recognize multiple objects on the phone using a stripped down object recognition algorithm^[24] as well as using GPS and compass. Auto-geotagging can show where a picture is taken, promoting interactions and allowing a photo to be mapped with others for comparison.

Besides the usual back camera, some phones have a front camera facing the user for purposes including videoconferencing and self-portraiture.^[25]

Laws

Camera phones, or more specifically, widespread use of such phones as cameras by the general public, has increased exposure to laws relating to public and private photography. The laws that relate to other types of cameras also apply to camera phones. There are no special laws for camera phones.

References

External links

• Media related to Mobile phones with camera at Wikimedia Commons