Had an expensive piece of kit lifted from your bag on the subway or at an airport?

If you suspect your camera was stolen and are curious as to its eventual fate, a site called “Stolen Camera Finder” could help you locate it. It may not help you get it back, but if another person uploaded images from your camera to the web, you might at least be able to track it down.

Stolen Camera Finder mines the web for EXIF data in uploaded images- one that could lead to an image on a site like Facebook or Flickr that was taken using your camera. In the off chance it was taken by a shady acquaintance, you could confront them with the proof and maybe they’ll be scared enough to give it back.

A smattering of images taken from my own and friends’ cameras I quickly dragged and dropped into the site’s easy to use interface didn’t turn up any hits- interesting, because some come from the camera of a known snapper and sharer. Have you given Stolen Camera Finder a spin? Were there any hits for your camera’s pics?

Stolen Camera Finder- does what it says on the tin is a post from: The Inquisitr

At first when I read this I thought is had to be a joke of some sort but it turns out that a New York University photography professor plans on have a camera implanted in the back of his head.

Yes you read that right.

Wafaa Bilal, and Iraqi assistant professor of photography and imaging department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, will be undergoing surgery in the next few weeks to have the camera installed. Then for one year Bilal will take still pictures at one-minute intervals which will then be fed to monitors at new museum in Qatar.

The thumbnail-sized camera will be affixed to his head through a piercing-like attachment, his NYU colleagues say. Mr. Bilal declined to comment for this story.

The artwork, titled “The 3rd I,” is intended as “a comment on the inaccessibility of time, and the inability to capture memory and experience,” according to press materials from the museum, known as Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Mr. Bilal’s work would be among the inaugural exhibits of Mathaf, scheduled to open next month.

Because Mr. Bilal is an active professor, teaching three courses this semester and scheduled to teach this spring, his special camera could capture not just his personal activity, but also his interactions with students.

via Wall Street Journal

Apparently, and quite rightly so, the university is concerned about the privacy issues that could result from this and are still determining the rules by which Bilal will be able to have the camera actually taking pictures while on university property.

New lifestreaming technique – implanted camera in back of head is a post from: The Inquisitr

I understand the insatiable need for technology to move forward as all kinds of interesting and fun things come into our lives as a result but at some point you just gotta step back and go – do we really need this?

Such is the case with image and video quality on cellphones. I mean it’s nice having a phone that can snap a great image at 5 megapixels (MP) but why do we think that more is necessarily better?

Of course this isn’t something that Sony is wondering about in the least as they begin offering a new sensor to manufacturers next spring that will allow for 16MP pictures and 1080p video, yes 1080p … on a cellphone.

Besides just questioning the over all quality of images based on lens quality Devindra Hardawar at MobileBeat raises some valid points about the idea of 1080p on cellphones.

It’s also worth questioning the usefulness of 1080p video on a cellphone. On the iPhone 4, 10 minutes of a 720p recording takes up around 1GB of space. With 1080p video, that number may hover around 3GB depending on the compression used. Regardless of the specific file size, 1080p video is going to take up a big chunk of space on cellphones for very little benefit. The difference between 1080p and 720p video isn’t easy to tell in televisions under 50-inches, and it’s certainly overkill for video meant to be watched on the web. The large file size will also make it unfeasible for cellphones with less than 32GB of storage.

Not to mention the whole idea of watching video of anything on a cellphone has always struck me as being a waste of time.

16MP images and 1080p video on cellphones. Seriously, why? is a post from: The Inquisitr

Photographers can do some pretty cool stuff with their cameras. Everything from macro-photography to high-speed captures of almost instantaneous moments in time. As much as it might take some pretty hefty equipment to capture those moments the real skill comes in being able to recognize when those moments might happen and then catching them on film.

This is only a portion of a larger collection pulled together by the guys over at Smashing Apps but they’re the one’s that caught my eye and I thought I would share.

Top Photo: Water Figures

Yoda

Fetch Red

Water

Popping Soap Bubble

Pabst + Hollow Point

Water sound figures

Triple Impact

Liquify

3 Waterballons + Bullet

A Splash

10 Awesome high-speed photographs is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to a report surfacing on CBS news station WBZ children’s toy maker Fisher-Price decided to send along some extra goodies with one of their cameras for children. The FP Kid-Tough digital camera is infecting the computers that connect to it via the USB cable supplied with the toy.

Anna Tapper couldn’t wait to tear open and try out her favorite present.

"I take pictures of lots of things," Anna said.

Her father, Jeff Tapper, said she had a big smile on her face the minute she knew what it was.
"She was glad to have her own camera and she didn’t have to ask mom and dad for theirs and she could take as many pictures as she wanted," Tapper said.

When Tapper went to download her work, he found her camera had two viruses. Luckily, his anti-virus software spotted them before he downloaded them onto his computer. Without an up-to-date virus-fighter, his laptop could’ve been infected.

"Especially since it’s a kid’s digital camera it’s the last thing you’d expect to have a virus on it," Tapper said.

Source: WBZTV

Google is already showing a number of hits on the Fisher-Price camera virus

[hat tip to the Consumerist]

[graphic courtesy of CBS]

Thanks for the virus Fisher-Price is a post from: The Inquisitr

England has for the longest time been held up as the beacon of police action through CCTV even though more than one study has proven the benefits to be doubtful. In a move to make England the most watched over society they have spent over £500 million in the last decade but that may all be for naught since they can’t find the money to man the watch stations.

Worcester City is one of the one’s that it can no longer afford the £140,000 a year that is need to pay people to watch for crimes to happen. As a result entire networks of cameras are being put on auto-pilot with the police examining the video after the crime has occurred on the off chance something useful might turn up.

Simon Geraghty, leader of Worcester City Council, said: ‘There has been an agreement between the city council and West Mercia Police that we fund the operatives and we have to give them at least 12 months notice.

‘They (West Mercia Police) have said they do not want to fund this but it is a burden we can no longer support.’

But the move has angered police who say that it will be more difficult to detect and convict criminals without the support of the CCTV operators.

Chief Supt Reynolds, south Worcestershire’s head of policing, said: ‘It’s like having an automatic car without a driver.

- source: Daily Mail

Not to mention the police would actually have to do proper police work. Except the problem there is that because of the investment in Big Bother the police don’t have the same manpower.

The economy makes a joke of the ‘most watched country’ is a post from: The Inquisitr