Shoots digital 3D viewable with anaglyph glasses.

This week at Toy Fair we caught sight of a booth filled with Bigshot cameras. These DIY digital point and shoots — developed by Shree Nayar and a talented team of students and faculty at Columbia University’s Computer Vision Laboratory — have been around for a couple of years, but not yet available on the market. Up until now, the Bigshot has been in prototype and testing phase. However, when we spoke to team member Guru Krishnan in the booth, he told us that the camera will finally be available via retail outlets this year.

The Bigshot is a basic digital point and shoot that lacks some features consumers have come to expect on digital cameras, such as an LCD on the back for lining up shots and reviewing pictures. The reason it’s so basic is that it’s made for kids to use and, even more importantly, made for kids to make. Proud owners must first assemble the camera, learning about each of the different parts as they go. Even after it’s all assembled, the back casing is clear with labels for each of the visible parts. Krishnan says this not only has an educational benefit, but also makes the camera extra special to the child who built it.

Though the camera is basic, it’s capable of a variety of shots. The lens wheel on the front has three different modes: Normal, Panoramic, and Stereoscopic for taking 3D photos. Images are saved to the camera’s on-board flash memory. Kids then transfer them to a computer and can use the Bigshot software to process the images. Once processed, the 3D images can be viewed with old-school red/blue 3D glasses.

Another thing I like about it is that it’s eco-friendly. Some versions of the prototype used a single AA battery, but the version we saw had a little crank on the side to generate energy. It doesn’t take much to give the Bigshot enough juice to last a while.

In addition to the camera itself, there’s also a website with a vast array of educational materials related to photography and the science of optics. This was also developed by the Columbia team to further the learning experience and keep kids engaged. I learned a lot it my brief skim of the site. It’s a teacher’s dream in there.

The Bigshot team is still looking for a licensee for the camera (which is why they were at Toy Fair). Once they find one it hopefully won’t be long until retail sales begin. Though there’s no price yet, Krishnan said they’d liek to keep the price below $50 for retail and even lower for schools and educational institutions.

See the original story here: http://blog.laptopmag.com/bigshot-diy-camera-for-kids-finally-coming-to-market-soon