Integrating Tagging and Creation

I just saw the announcement for Samsung’s new ST10, a 9 mega pixel camera with haptic feedback and the ability to do facial recognition.

“The technology actually recognises the people you’re taking photos of, and then prioritises the friends and family you photograph the most. The camera can automatically classify photos according to who is in them, making it easier for you to find photos with certain people in them.”

In Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky describes the shift in the way content is distributed. Shirky says we’re moving from a model of Filter, then Publish (Newspapers) to Publish, then Filter. (Blogs). What’s interesting to me about the ST10 is that by incorporating tags into the photos, they have effectively combined the process of filtering with the process of creation. I’m curious to see what kind of impact this will have on the way we process information, the way we create content, and of course, privacy. But that’s a bit premature. First we’ll have to see if people actually use this camera.

The ST10 seems to have pulled of an interaction coup. They’ve reduced the steps from creation to publishing and sorting. But facial recognition is also very personal. Privacy, vulnerability and intimacy all come into play. I hope they took the entire system into account as they developed this product. Not just the steps from A to B, but the emotional texture of all of those events and their ramifications. If they have, I expect the ST10 to be quite a delightful little camera. If not, it may just seem creepy.

This was written by Tom. Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2009, at 3:47 pm. Filed under Interaction Design, Products We Like. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.