back to article Designer draws up digital camera-cum-punchcard printer

Instant camera photo paper is pricey, so a student designer based in San Francisco has sketched plans for two digital cameras which physically impress pictures into sheets of paper. Punch_01 Punch presses images into paper using hole punch theory In essence Punch is a digital camera with a series of hole punch pins inside …

COMMENTS

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  1. Rob Kidd
    FAIL

    Well..

    .. That's a bit pointless isn't it?

  2. LuMan
    Thumb Up

    HOW cool!!

    Y'see. This is something that's missing from photography nowadays - blimming fun! Everyone shows off their snobby, multi-megapixel beasts, but sometimes a little bit of fun is what we really want.

    Definitely one for the list!

  3. myxiplx
    Alert

    Just don't get it upside down

    I wonder if the second version was developed after just such a mistake. Ouch!

  4. Pete 43
    Happy

    Funky

    Would have loved to see this on Dragon's den :-)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Awesome.

    I think it's a pretty cool idea - it'd be interesting to see what people turn out, a la lowfi film camera work where people turn horrible cameras/lenses to advantage.

    That said, I can't think of a reasonably practical and inexpensive way to create something that would DO that - a grid of strong, precisely-positionable pins that can be electrically actuated would be a real trick...

  6. Paul Barnard
    Thumb Up

    Could be a great stencil maker

    Punch your image, place against object and spray with the colour of your choice. Now anyone can be a Banksy.

  7. Anonymous John
    Coat

    I think I'll wait

    for the colour version.

    Mine's the one with the picture punched on it.

  8. Robert E A Harvey

    And next?

    A shovel with a toaster attached, for handy mid-trench snacking?

    or how about a headlight for dogs, so they can see while on late-night walkies?

    Let's build a sharpened tennis racket so you can make chi[ps by throwing potatoes in the air and clobbering it before it comes down?

    I fancy an inflatable dance floor, for impromptu tangos

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @Paul Barnard

    Take four pictures with four filters, and spray with CMYK slightly offset... voila! Offset graffiti! I'm liking where I see this going...

    And to Robert E A Harvey - I'm totally down with the sharpened tennis racket idea. The best thing would be to do your swing right over a bucket of hot oil. Might want to wear an oven mitt, though...

  10. Colin Wilson
    Pint

    This might have a practical use

    (my wife's first comment when I told her about it, laughing)

    "It'd be good for the blind - they could 'see' views"

    Good point...

    Pint - for the beer goggles :-}

  11. Puck
    Thumb Up

    Really like it

    This is a long way away from a lot of the pointless rubbish to which some of the knockers above refer. It reminds me of 1980 when I think at Brent Cross shopping centre in London, there was a digital camera setup, where you paid 10 or £20, and had your portrait taken, in maybe 30 pixels by 40 pixels (or maybe a few more), with the same variable pixel size, in black and white. My grandmother had and my mother has a copy of the photograph taken of my brother and myself hugging like friends, looking really very sweet. It is quite affecting, perhaps it is something to do with the medium and its simplicity which means that you have to actually take a photograph of something meaningful and communicative to make it worthwhile, e.g. your loved ones, rather than just any old crap with your camera phone. There is an intimacy about that sort of imagery which I like.

    Our technology these days is too good and makes us blind to it and to the art work which it generates-so the low-tech, low fidelity approach can be refreshing and vital. In this instance, the product is, I suppose, not in a completely dissimilar category to one of those miniature Polaroid cameras which takes photos of you and your friends when you're drunk or so-it's not a hasselblad, and you probably won't use it when you're 40, but it has its place. Good luck to its maker (although I do agree with and above person who suggests it is probably too difficult to produce all those pins etc). Lovely idea though-keep them coming.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Ideal for Tetley Tea Bags imprint their logo

    Nothing like a Sunday Morning Cuppa to give you an intelligent use for this device.

    Note: This is my patent application, so if Tetley does start using it. You saw it here first.

  13. JC 2

    K3WL!111

    It will be the next revolution in data storage.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cost of device with lots of electrically actuated pins

    I met a blind computer science student once. He used a speech synthesiser instead of a screen. I asked him if he couldn't get a Braille screen, and he said that such things exists, and he'd really prefer to use one, but they cost thousands of pounds and there's no way he could afford one.

  15. SirTainleyBarking
    Coat

    @David W

    This is the sort of thing that Lomograpy International would charge an arm/leg/other gender specific body part for, considering what they charge for reproductions of cameras that were given away in cornflake packets in the 60's.

    The Japanese would take this up in huge numbers as well with a bit of marketing.

    Mines the one with the Zeiss Ikon in it, with a box brownie attached to the collar

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wonder if it's good enough...

    ...to do receipts and things like that.

  17. TeeCee Gold badge

    I see a flaw.

    I wonder how many times you can thump the living shit out of it to produce a piccy before the electronics inside decide to take their marbles and go sulk in a corner?

  18. Simon B
    Heart

    OHHHH! slam THAT side!!

    Simply take a picture, slide a sheet of paper into the camera’s special slot and then slam your fist down onto the side of the camera labelled “Punch”.

    OHHHH! I was supposed to slam THAT side!! No wonder my phones fked after twatting it numerous times unable to get it to punch!

    PMSL, I can so see it now as some muppet would hit the wrong side and after many slams finds a phone in many pieces! ROFPMSL. Then just as funny he call to tech support explaining how they only SLAMMED the phone as instructed and it exploded into bits!!!! Aaaaaahahahahahaha!

  19. Marvin the Martian
    Go

    It sure helps some

    If you want to start doing Banksy-style stencil graffity, but your institute's staff won't let you have sharp scissors (or you're no good at drawing) then you can draw an image on your computer (or download it) and punch the stencil.

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