Look Ma, I Made a Camera

The Big Shot camera, currently in prototype, could be the most unique and eco-friendly camera for kids.

The Big Shot camera, currently in prototype, could be the most unique and eco-friendly camera for kids. Packed in a kit, it requires kids to assemble it themselves, and in the process, learn basic engineering. But the fun doesn’t end there. The camera, through clever design, can click standard, 3D and panoramic images, use flash and run without a battery.

The Big Shot project, a brainchild of Columbia University Professor Shree Nayar, has three missions: let kids as young as eight learn science, teach them the basics of photography and provide them a common platform to share pictures.  The results, which look empowering, can be seen at bigshot.org.

Here’s how the ‘green’ part works. When fully assembled and operational, the camera has a crank at its side that could be rotated, which in turn charges up a dynamo inside, to let kids take photos.

“The kids love the [3D] feature,” says Shree Nayar of the initial response to the prototype that was tested by kids in Bangalore, Vung Tao (Vietnam) and New York. He plans to roll out the camera at a price of around $100.

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Arindam Mukherjee