September 8, 2003
Do phone cameras have to make a sound when digital cameras can be silent?
There is a new entry on Keitai Log, by Taro Matsumura, reflecting whether or not camera phones should have to make a sound as some digital cameras are so small (smaller than a business card) and can take high quality pictures (illegally or not) without making sound.
His argument is that snapping shots with camphones has become so prevelant in Japan, that people now recognize someone taking a picture with a cell phone, simply based on their posture, on the way they hold their cell phone.
"Until camera phones became popular, is was always obvious when someone was taking a picture with a digital or an ordinary camera. And if someone were trying to take a picture illegally, people nearby would notice.
With the introduction of camera phones, however, it was not the same posture anymore. Without sound, people looked as if they were writing e-mails when they were actually taking pictures. It was necessary to add some kind of sound to prevent people from taking pictures illegally".
So really, the issue of whether or not picture phones should make a sound could be completely irrelevent once these handsets go mainstream, as in Japan.
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