Abstract
Nowadays it is common to share photos on the Internet.
Social image sharing sites such as Facebook and Flickr are frequently used by people
worldwide. Todays advanced mobile phones have
contributed to that immediate sharing of images has become more common.
However, this is not possible with digital cameras that on the other hand
deliver much better image quality than camera phones. The camera user is
therefore forced to choose between quality and immediacy when taking a photo.
A number of attempted solutions to this problem can be
found on the market today. We have chosen to call these solutions
"connected cameras", implicating digital cameras with Internet access that provide the functionality to upload pictures to
sharing web sites. However, none of these cameras have yet had a major impact
on the market.
The aim of this project has been to find out why there
is no larger demand for connected cameras and how a connected camera should be
designed to be usable. The investigations of this project has
consisted of two focus groups, a workshop and a questionnaire study. Mostly
students, but also photographers participated in our studies.
We have found that one reason to why immediacy has had
no success among digital cameras is that the products available today have a
too limited Internet access. In order for a connected camera to be useful it
must have wide and easy access to Internet so the user can share photos when
they are still fresh. Another reason is that the interface for the current
solutions lacked functionality and therefore we have concluded a set of
functions required for a connected camera to be useful. The necessary functions
are: adding text to photos, editing photos, effective uploading and the
opportunity to choose which website to upload the pictures to. In order for
these functions to be easy to use the connected camera should also have touchscreen.
Based on the results from our investigations we have
developed a suggested solution, with the necessary functions and a useful interface, that would suit users of a potential connected
camera.