Ubi-Camera: Just Frame Your Fingers to Take a Picture (VIDEO)

This rule isn't universal, but it's one that's generally observed in the tech industry: the smaller it is, the better. Have you noticed how media players evolved from boomboxes, to Walkmans, and then to mp3 players? Or how storage media went from floppy disks to CDs, and then to tiny USB drives?

Cameras won't necessarily follow suit, given how DSLRs are still preferred for the superior image quality of the shots that photographers can achieve with them. But even the pros would have to admit the ingenuity and innovativeness that went into the Ubi-Camera.

You can think of the Ubi-Camera more of like a cameraless camera. It doesn't have a viewfinder or even a shutter button, which are two things that most people consider as essential parts of a camera. In fact, the Ubi is just a tiny rectangular contraption with a cavity on one side where your finger is supposed to go.

So how does one take pictures on the Ubi, if there's no shutter button? And how does one zoom in or zoom out on a scene before taking a picture, when there aren't any knobs or dials on the device? It's a whole lot simpler than you think.

"You attach this device to your index finger, and form a rectangle with your finger like this. You take the photo by using the rectangle as the viewfinder, like this. When you push hard with your thumb, the shutter is pressed.

When you take a photo with your face close to the camera, you get a wide-angle shot like this, and if you move it further away, you can take a close up shot."

-- Ubi-Camera developers, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences

The Ubi-Camera is still in its prototype stage and might soon render viewfinders and displays unnecessary--if it goes into the next stage of production, that is.

Article by Hazel Chua
Gigadgetry: Cool Gadgets, Tech News, Quirky Devices