Seems to me the problem with digital photos is that you can't write on the back of them, as one used to do with prints. So why not restore this lost utility by having the viewscreen on the back of the camera do double duty, as an input device as well as an output? At the time the photo is taken or later in review mode one could "write" on a touch-sensitive screen. The writing could appear as a vivid color, to contrast that of the photo so as to prevent writing over what has gone before. Recollections would be condensed while fresh in mind and there would be much less memory hogging, as happens with sound files. Images would have to be downloaded as seperate but associated "layers" which could be dealt with using PhotoShop or a similar photo editing program. One could preserve the comments by making the lettering "transparent". Addendum: here it is 3 years later, I still want one and I still don't know where I can get one!! "Here" is June 26, '07...
-- Steamboat, Jul 08 2004

EXIF Meta Data http://www.pixlabs....20709--15539(1).htm
Below the picture on that page. [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004]

BenQ E40 http://www.photogra...one_for_the_ladies/
Jul 19 2004: "The E40 features BenQ's first and innovative touch screen design that allows photo personalization....you can also make creative "scrawling" directly on photos." [krelnik, Oct 04 2004]

Ink as photo metadata. Nice. +

As long as it is stored as vector data for if were stored as a raster layer of the same dimension as, say, a typical 5 or 6 MP digital camera image it would be far larger than an efficiently stored audio file.
-- bristolz, Jul 08 2004


this is good sort of like tags for mp3's. (+)
-- xclamp, Jul 08 2004


maybe this could be implemented using steganography? just a thought.
-- xclamp, Jul 08 2004


is is useful more then most people probably think, surveyers could write down locations, vacationers can write what happened, etc. This is awesome+

P.S. Welcome to the HB
-- swimr, Jul 08 2004


Gosh that's clever. On the other hand, my digital camera lets me easily add audio annotation to each pic, so as I take the photo I can say "6AM male blue heron west of Berryman Slough", or "attractive neighbor trying on new lingerie". it actually works quite well and the audio labels seem to use little of the camera's memory.

Alternatively, why not just write your comments on a pad of paper and photograph that after each photo? That's what I used to do before the audio came along. :-)
-- musicator, Jul 08 2004


One of those ideas that simply should exist.

[bz] Even raster should be fine, considering the viewscreens are usually on the order of 130K pixels.
-- Worldgineer, Jul 08 2004


... and since the raster is only two colors, it will compress very well.

My camera has the audio recording feature, which is nice, but I think I'd use the scratch pad more often (assuming it was well implemented and I didn't loose the stylus).
-- scad mientist, Jul 08 2004


Of course, I did say "of the same dimensions as...."

The viewscreen on my daughter's digital camera is 600K pixels.
-- bristolz, Jul 08 2004


Nice first idea, Steamboat. (WTAGIPBAN)
-- krelnik, Jul 13 2004


I want to find a reason to bone this as everyone else likes it so much. I just can't. Bun.
-- wagster, Jul 13 2004


Digital cameras can store text information inside the image file, and the text stays with the image. See "Image Comments" in the [link]. If the camera allowed text entry, you could type a comment into the picture file.
If you need to be able to "sketch" on pictures as you take them, the drawing could be stored in the EXIF file as text code, and re-drawn using special PC software.
This feature will occupy extra space on the camera's memory card.
-- Amos Kito, Jul 13 2004


very nice. +1
-- po, Jul 14 2004


A big LCD screen would be required, like my 2.5" monster. 1.5" might not allow easy handwriting. Never-the-less, good for marking up photos i.e. arrows, circles ("this one"), without using any further utilities.
Also might be used for select focal point, exposure window, white balance point for the more serious applications.
Why didn't anyone think of it before? +
-- Ling, Jul 14 2004


Wow, we've had ideas become baked after being posted here many times, but I think this sets a new speed record. BenQ just announced a new phone this week that has this exact feature, a mere 11 days after your posting. See link.
-- krelnik, Jul 20 2004


[krelnik]- Makes you wonder if companies actually browse HB for ideas for products.
-- evilmathgenius, Jul 20 2004


This would be far easier (a Small Matter of Programming) and cheaper (free except for a few hours of a developer's time) to implement now that everyone's main camera has a touchscreen. However, I haven't seen it implemented anywhere. I've used the audio annotations my old camera had, but they're difficult to search through, and I haven't seen that feature on smartphones. Why not allow both in smartphone camera apps, especially now that we have much better voice recognition and presumably better handwriting recognition too?
-- notexactly, Dec 17 2018



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