A bionic look into the future of wearable cameras
Shea Kewin, co-founder & ceo of UHWK and Tim Priamo, co-founder and vice president of UHWK, proudly hold hockey helmets with their camera technology used to help athletes improve. (Photography by Elise Morton/ The Sheridan Sun)
STORY BY ELISE MORTON
A chorus of gasps filled the crowded room as people were horrified by the graphic images of Canada’s first bionic eye implant at the Capturing the Future: The Evolution of the Camera event in Toronto last Thursday.
It offered a look at the extraordinary and unimaginable ways cameras are changing the world we live in.
The eye-popping presentation given by Dr. Robert Devenyi, ophthalmologist-in-chief and director of retinal services at the University Health Network, was an unforgettable example of how wearable camera technology is being used.
We Are Wearables organized the event in partnership with Best Buy Canada at the MaRS Discovery District Centre. It has been hosting a series of discussions around different types of wearable technology since January, 2014.
“The goal for the night was really to ensure that people had a conversation around how wearable cameras could impact our world,” said Tom Emrich, founder of We Are Wearables. “What are some of the things we need to do to prepare them and also what are some of the options out there to be able to adopt this type of technology?”
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The event featured a night of talks, an exhibitor area where drones, 3D printers and scanners, spherical cameras, virtual reality and other technology were demonstrated and networking opportunities.
The presentations covered a variety of ways companies have been using wearable camera technology to change and improve medical areas, athletic performance, blogging and Toronto Police Services.
Cameras are being worn by police officers, helping athletes improve their game, flying and giving people the ability to see.
Teresa Sing, a long-time attendee of the We Are Wearables Toronto events, who enjoys meeting people, sharing ideas, creating opportunities and learning new things was blown away by the event.
“Oh my goodness, they were fabulous, this even out did the last couple of events,” said Sing. “That bionic eye was something else, everybody had something new to talk about that I didn’t know and it was just amazing.”
“Everyone’s taken everything to another level. That bionic human being thing it’s very doable,” said Sing. “Who would have thought as a child, I would see a show called the Six Million Dollar Man, and now it’s happening, the TV show is actually happening and it’s fabulous and fascinating.”
Visually recorded on this whiteboard are notes from the presentations at the Capturing the Future: The Evolution of the Camera event in Toronto. (Photography by Elise Morton/ The Sheridan Sun)
The most popular topic of concern and discussion throughout the night for both the speakers and the audience was privacy. The issue arose after Inspector Michael Barsky, staff sergeant at Toronto Police Services, gave a brief presentation about the one-year Toronto Police body camera pilot.
Although the main focus of the presentations was wearable cameras Emrich, used the exhibitor area to show the evolution side of the event.
“Cameras are changing. They are flying and they are allowing to see all of us and this is why we changed the scope to be more of the evolution of the camera,” said Emrich.
“This is all part of the evolution of how we are capturing ourselves and I wanted to represent that here in the exhibitor area so that when people are here they understand that it’s not just wearable cameras.”
