This Camera That Has a Mind of its Own

Have you ever felt that the pictures you take of popular places around you have been photographed to no end? You go to a beautiful location and you’re ready to take pictures to upload on Instagram and Pinterest, but you look around and find everyone else doing the same thing – taking pictures from generic positions and angles.

Well, what if we told you that there is a camera that pushes you to take new and innovative pictures of popular locations and won’t let you click them from angles that are too common? This is exactly what a German designer Philipp Schmitt has developed. Schmitt has created a concept camera called, Camera Restricta, that stops you from taking pictures from frequently snapped locations.

The camera uses geotagging to find pictures on the internet that are posted too many times from that particular location and will make a clicking sound and the lens will retract back into the body. Yes, the camera will disobey you if it has to. Unless you find a place from where you can take a picture that is new and different, the camera will refuse to listen to you.

Schmitt stated in his website that geotagging is mainly used as an indicator to determine whether the photo lacks originality. He says that “the camera scans an area of roughly 35×35 meters around its exact location for geotagged photos. Cities and especially tourist sights are so thoroughly photographed that it often finds dozens or even thousands of photos.”

Would you buy a camera that only lets you take new and original photographs? The camera is an open-source software and can be found here.