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2007 Winner Entry
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IEye: Add on Still and Video Camera |
Category: Consumer |
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Thomas Miller
Huntley, IL US
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Entered: 09/18/2007
Patented or Patent Pending
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Personal Media Players are commonplace today. It is a fiercely competitive market that must reinvent itself for its very survival. A byproduct of this planned obsolescence are the out of date Personal Media Players, what to do with the old units? The energy and resources to produce these units and ship them around the world is substantial as well is the expense to the end user. Also of a concern are the many dangerous materials that go into these complicated electronic devices that may end up in a landfill. This entry provides a means to repurpose and/or add functionality to existing Personal Media Players. This is accomplished by a small video and still camera and commonplace electronics that encode video or still images to an existing standard digital format (mpg4 and jpg). This invention is attached to the Personal Media Player’s Docking connector. The device then uses the Personal Media Player as a monitor to view the content as it is being recorded onto the device and as a storage device for the digital files. The Personal Media Player is used as a storage device for the recorded media and the user is able to move the files off the unit for editing and/or burning to DVD. The device also adds functionality by enabling the Personal Media Player to video conference by streaming the video and audio, wirelessly (either WIFI or 3G). Functionality is also added by upgrading the optics on the still camera lens. Today cameras are found in most new cell phones and technology is converging into hybrid cell phone/Personal Media Players. The problem is the cameras that are built in to these hybrid devices are very low resolution and of poor quality. The camera in this device would be a much higher resolution, due to the large amount of storage on Personal Media Players, and higher quality optics, due to the relatively small increase in overall cost to the device. The device is called IEye ™, which draws on a common parlance for small electronic devices. We feel the IEye will drive purchases of new Personal Media Players and spurn development of new players by reducing the prospect of what to do with the out of date Personal Media Players.
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Meet the Entrant, Thomas Miller
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Contact Email: thosemiller@hotmail.com |
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Profession: Architect |
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Number of times entering contest previously: 1
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Design Tools:
Pencil and Paper
Physical models
Image rendering software
Analysis software
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Software used:
SketchUp
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Thomas's favorite design tool:
SketchUp for its ease of use and MicroStation for its features and granularity.
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Thomas's hobbies and activities:
Sailing, guitar, travel, technology, animation, rendering, consumer electronics, design, architecture, music, and family.
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What role does Thomas believe product design plays in creating a better future?
By encouraging the documentation of everyday activities; including archiving and the sharing of that digital information. Driving the next generation of personal media players, and the repurposing out of date electronics. Enabling computing, distance learning and communication with simple, mass produced, portable consumer electronics.
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