Now, a no-fuss video camera

Aug 26: In the late 1970's, early adopters of new technology had to be truly eager to own the first video cameras that went on sale. Officially, they were portable but only if you were willing to tape a family birthday party with a large and heavy shoulder-mounted camera that used separate lights and was tethered to a power cord.

Fortunately, consumer video cameras soon got smaller. For several years they were about the size of a football, and came with their own lights and battery. Then in the 1990s, hand-held and palm-size recorders became the standard, and digital recording technology became available. But in spite of their tiny, lightweight versatility, video cameras still function basically like those first heavy models of the 70s.

Now, a group of inventors has won a patent for a wearable video camera that the inventors say can be attached to a shoulder strap, turned on and ignored. They call their invention a “low-attention recording unit” that lets the wearer continue to take part in whatever is being recorded.
"When you're experiencing an event, that's the worst time to think about stopping, pulling out the camera, setting up, making people wait,” said Henry Strub, a mechanical engineering designer with a Ph.D. in cognitive sciences and psychology. “This idea allows people to enjoy the optimal experience, with their hands free.”
Strub began research on the camera when he went to work in 1992. The goal was to create an unobtrusive camera that would record continually without requiring a lot of distracting interaction.

“We were looking at people who buy camcorders today,” said Strub, who is now a human-factors analyst in Philadelphia for Electronic Ink, a company that creates software with an emphasis on attractive design and usefulness. “Mainly, that's people who are new parents or about to become parents.”

The camera records onto a hard disk or other RAM technology, Strub said, adding it is “something that doesn't need a lot of electricity and can record everything that happens in a day without needing to be downloaded.”

Bureau Report