| Continuing Trends | New Modalities | New Form | New Collaboration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smaller - Cameras will continue the trend of physical size reduction. | Light Spectra - New spectra of light will be captured (IR, UV, beyond?). | Wand Form - Future cameras may be reduced to a simple pointing device, used to indicate to cameras in the environment which scene should be captured, or grow small enough to fit in such a pointing device | Environmental Distribution - Cameras may be distributed in the environment to take advantage of multiple vantage points to a scene. |
| More Pixels - Cameras will continue the trend of increasing the spatial resolution that can be captured. | Other Senses - Future cameras may capture information beyond what is visible in the scene. Cameras already can capture sound, location, and possibly bearing, but we expect this to expand a great deal, and function as a meta-information when pictures are searched later. | Implants - The possibility of implanting cameras in human bodies extends beyond the goal of helping the disabled to enhancing the senses of people with normal human abilities. These may focus on implantation in the human visual system (retina, optical never, brain implants) or on other senses (tactile, ... ). | Reside on Networks - Cameras that reside on networks can contribute to a collective understanding of a scene, and can be contextualized by surrounding data in time and space. The cameras themselves may be on the network, or the users may post the output from the cameras on the network. |
| Increased Storage - The local storage capacity of the camera device will continue to increase. | |
Sheet Camera - Future cameras could take the form of thin sheets | Cooperative Imaging - Pushing the cameras out of the users hands and into the environment will tend to free the user from the limitations of their local perspective. Such systems will require a much greater degree of autonomy. They could be complemented by devices that the users carry. It raises privacy issues |