TECHNOLOGY 'In Search Of The Shakespeare For The New Camera' Cameras are going to change the way we think and see, Here’s why. CHITRA NARAYANAN 03 March 2009 Imagine a camera that is able to take free focusing photographs, decided at time of capture. Or a camera, where software helps transform blurry images into fine shots. A camera where multiple shots are taken within the same shot; which captures not just the visual essence of the scene and analyses the critical components, but perhaps even other sensory components like smell and so on. As the next billion cameras get set to be unleashed on the world (and these could well be on your mobile phones), storytelling, and perhaps our very way of life, will be transformed, says Ramesh Raskar, head of Camera Culture at Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. So, is the ultimate idiot-proof being readied in the labs? “I won’t call it idiot proof. I call it so empowering that it liberates the user from technology and unleashes creativity,” says Raskar. One thing is sure, says Raskar, this super camera, which could be 6-dimensional, is going to revolutionise storytelling. In his vision of things, the super camera will be digital, distributed, democratised, dynamic and adaptive. Raskar, who is also co-director, Centre for Future Storytelling, and his team are engaged in computational photography — an emerging multi-disciplinary field which combines optics, signal processing, computer graphics+vision, electronics, art, and online sharing in social networks. In New Delhi for the EmTech 2009 conference, a conference on emerging technologies brought to India by MIT, Raskar says that India is an exciting experimental field for the Camera Culture team at MIT Media Lab. Although details are still being worked out, it’s here in India that the super camera may be let loose on and the social effects studied — Raskar is in talks with Bollywood studios to see how the storytelling experience can be modified. For instance, for different audiences, the same film could be shot in different ways. “India is an amazing test bed for us,” he says. “It’s very free, there’s a lot of colour, it’s English speaking, there are so many different strata of people, so there are lots of opportunities to study the social effect of new technology.” A phenomenon like YouTube, for instance, is something that the Camera Culture is watching closely — where the camera in the hands of the people has unleashed a powerful social phenomenon. Where the art of storytelling, which has shifted from noted movie makers to ordinary people, has become truly democratic. So, as bite-sized entertainment packages by the people for the people takes over, will, say, a Spielberg become irrelevant? Raskar doesn’t think so, although he admits that studios in the US are worried. “There are tensions between the master storyteller versus the bite-sized entertainment provider... But when the access to technology is democratised, there is a lot of chaos, it is very beautiful,” he says. As he also points out, while it’s more or less clear what form the next generation camera targeted at the “next billion”, or the less elite, will take, what’s not clear is what shape the content will take. “The Shakespeare for the new container has not arrived yet,” he grins. According to Raskar, while the technology is certain, how people will use the technology is the uncertain part, and that is the most exciting part of it all. As he says, “We are just creating the platforms, it is people who will take it to the next level.” bwonline at bworldmail dot com   Articles Blogs Conversations Placements Events