Scientists and Students at Stanford envision a world where the software that runs on digital cameras is similar to what currently runs on mobile devices and netbooks, and open-source user-modifiable operating system where new features can be downloaded onto the device. To this end they’ve created their own camera to demonstrate it.
Computer science graduate student Andrew Adams, who helped design the prototype of the Stanford camera (dubbed Frankencamera,) imagines a future where consumers download applications to their open-platform cameras the way Apple apps are downloaded to iPhones today. When the camera’s operating software is made available publicly, perhaps a year from now, users will be able to continuously improve it, along the open-source model of the Linux operating system for computers or the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
