Seeing photos of your friends’ travels is great – but when your Instagram and Facebook feeds are all full of the same landmarks over and over it can get old rather quickly. Designer Philipp Schmitt came up with a way to combat this burnout: he invented a disobedient camera that won’t take pictures in places where too many have been taken before. Want to take a photo from the top of the Empire State Building or in front of the Eiffel Tower? Tough luck, because about ten billion other people have beat you to it.

Camera Restricta uses GPS tracking to determine where it is. It constantly scans the internet to find photos geotagged with nearby locations. Looking at the screen, you can see how many pictures have been taken in your current spot and whether any more pictures are allowed to be taken there. Schmitt doesn’t divulge how many pictures of a given spot constitute “too many,” but we’re assuming it’s relative based on the accessibility and popularity of any given place.

If the camera decides that the place you’re in has become too cliched a snapshot site, it will refuse to work. A large red X will appear when you look through the viewfinder, and if you try to push the shutter button anyway, the shutter will retract and you’ll be shut down. This can add a kind of sense of adventure to your photos, as you never know when you’ll be the very first or the very last person to be allowed to take a photo of that scene.

This concept is a weird form of futuristic censorship in which the recording of our own memories takes a backseat to “originality.” The inventor also notes that the idea could be used by businesses or government entities that want to restrict photography in certain places. It’s unlikely that this type of technology will make its way into consumer cameras anytime soon, but this 3D printed prototype might be a glimpse into our future as tourists.

The post Picky Pics: Camera Won’t Let You Snap the Touristy Places first appeared on Gajitz.

At every holiday gathering – and, come to think of it, on a lot of regular days as well – you can count on someone falling asleep in front of the TV after a delicious meal and a few drinks. It’s really annoying, though, to sit down intending to watch something only to wake up a couple of hours later to find that you’ve slept through the whole thing. A couple of Manchester Creative Studio students aged 15 and 14 came up with the perfect fix that will ensure you get to watch all of the TV you want.

Their wearable design is called KipstR, and it was brought to life through Virgin Media’s Switched on Futures project. The 3D-printed wristband houses a pulse-oximeter which measures just how awake the wearer is. If Uncle Joe is wearing the KipstR and drifts off for a little kip (or nap, for those not fluent in British), the wristband acts like a remote for the TiVo and pauses or records the show. While the TiVo is recording that show, family members can feel free to grab the remote and switch over to something they like without fear of retribution when Uncle Joe suddenly roars back to life and wonders why his program isn’t on.

The students behind the design, Ryan Oliver and Jonathan Kingsley, were asked to work with Virgin Media in the refinement of the design. The wristband can mimic the remote control’s functions, but the KipstR could also be used to control other things around the house when the wearer falls asleep. If you live alone and are worried about wasting utilities, future versions of the technology could turn off your lights or turn down the heat while you sleep. The wristband could even record your emotional state and suggest TV shows based on your current mood…although we have to point out that extending your Little House on the Prairie marathon definitely isn’t going to get you out of that post-holiday emotional slump.

The post Sleepy? KipstR Starts Recording Your TV When You Drift Off first appeared on Gajitz.