The “mobile camera app” is a misleading name for what it actually achieves. The misnomer is quite similar to the usage of “iPhone” when one refers to smartphones in general. Though the iPhones can make phone calls like any normal telephone, they are in truth more powerful and ever-improving personal computers that can be used for infinite possibilities. For the majority of the time, people nowadays don’t use smartphones to call someone but mainly for various entertainment and productivity need. Similarly, mobile camera is not merely used to make photographs but as a new kind of creative tool for entertainment and productivity. The latter is becoming the dominating use case.
Cameras are loosely defined as optical instruments that capture visual images. Many of us grew up with memories of flashes for family portraits, small yellow cylinder Kodak roll films, and the first digital camera we each carried around. They are magical devices that help us document precious moments in our lives. On the other hand, camera apps have been commonly viewed as a digital clone of the traditional camera that is built-in for smartphones. Yet, while it is true that you can use them to capture a visual image just like any other camera, it does so in a much more convenient way. Many apps offer some other post-capturing features to help you polish the pictures like a professional. However, as with anything that has been softwarized, it has become much more than what it used to be and is capable of continuously evolving.
Camera apps on our smartphones also differ from camera software that is built for security cameras, drones, cars, etc. Technically speaking, they can both process audio-visual inputs from the optical instruments and apply all kinds of computations on top of them. However, smartphones are already in our pockets, and we point our camera to things that we find interesting. Hence, the selection of optical inputs in this case is subjective.
We choose what we want to capture using the cameras in our pocket, and the software helps us to easily record what we really see. We can liken camera sensors to our eyes—their core functionality is to control lights to reflect our surroundings into continuous images that are instantaneously sent to our brain. What we really try to record using the camera app is indeed the very things we see in our mind—our thoughts.
Our thoughts are personal to us; they are a reflection of our surroundings, our knowledge about our personal contexts, imagination, emotions, personal opinions, and even memories. That’s why we see things differently from others when we visit the same places for which we have fond memories. All of this happens in a fraction of a second. It then becomes our memory—which we choose to remember, constantly alter, or occasionally forget. Hence, the mobile camera app in our pocket should try to facilitate that thinking process in our mind, capturing things that only we can see in a powerful and easy way. That’s why we, a smart camera startup, call the camera app we are building the Camera for Thought.
I often break down a typical capturing session for our camera into four phases:
- Pre-Capture: The initial phase at the start of the app that accesses sensors on the user’s device, turns on the camera, sets up the configuration, and most importantly, gets the user mentally ready to capture something. Naturally, it is similar to the moment we wake up, open our eyes and all other senses, recognize our surroundings, and get ready to face the world.
- Lensing: Once the camera is on, regardless of whether it is recording or not, the app receives audiovisual input from the sensors. This input is a series of frames that can be processed in infinite ways that are bounded only by the imagination and the power of your device. Like our mind, thoughts are constantly happening without effort.
- Capturing: At one point during the recording, users may decide to record what they see, adjust the camera, or point it in different directions. This is the phase where much of our personal judgement comes into play and makes the mobile camera the best tool to express ourselves. In our mind, this is where memory is formed and leaves a mark on us.
- Editing: After the video is taken, the user can continuously modify the content using a growing set of creative features. In real life, we all continue to curate our experiences after the event. Our memories are often not a mere recording of events that happen to us, but a perspective that we choose to remember.
 |  |  |  | |
| Phase | Pre-Capture | Lensing | Capturing | Editing |
| Technical Definition | Set up camera and microphone sensors on the device | Alter or distort the frames in any way using external models and data | Record a series of altered frames into persistent storage | Edit the persistent storage (video file) with further customization and processing |
The sequence of computation perfectly mimics how human see things in my opinion. In order to see, we first need to open our eyes and pay attention, as the camera app does in the Pre-Capture phase. Once something catches our eyes, our imagination activates in unbounded ways, similar to putting on different lenses on in the camera app. After all, we only choose to remember the things (capturing) we want and alter them constantly in our memories afterwards (editing). The process repeats itself. The thoughts we created in the past, our memories, now affect how we see things in new ways.
There has been a burgeoning growth in product innovation for each phase of the creative process among modern camera apps, most notably those developed by TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. While the efforts for pre-capture are often hidden behind the scenes, smart ideas have been embedded meticulously to prepare users emotionally to create something and fertilize their intentions through veracious feedback mechanisms. Lensing is the stage for apps to compete with their latest offerings, either as filters or AR lenses. Snapchat has been winning over younger markets through its fresh, fun lenses. It is a great way for apps to acquire new users, and big platforms invest heavily to compete in this space. In contrast, the capturing phase is often overlooked by apps and handed back to the control of the users. Editing is mostly a continuation of the shift from PC to mobile apps, where complex features in desktop software for professionals are given a more intuitive user interface on the phone for more casual users—a democratic process for self-expression.
However, some of these products have already become dominating platforms for photo and video sharing. They often capture only one kind of relationship between people and their thoughts. For example, Snapchat has popularized the usage of AR lenses for communication among friends. They also declared themselves a camera company at their IPO, envisioning the potential of camera technology. However, their offerings on AR lenses largely center around face filters—dog face, scary mask, makeup, time machine, etc. The popularity of the app is rooted in young people’s desire for selfies. Nathan Jurgenson puts in his book The Social Photo: “Selfies make plain the ongoing process of identity construction, and young people need space to experiment with inescapable work of identity production, to make mistakes trying to get it right.” The foundational thesis on camera and AR technology is seismic shifting, but the applications are only trapped among young people. Similarly, TikTok leverages music in their camera to create a global talent show by letting young people share their body language and aesthetic tastes easily using visual elements. The latest popular photo social app, Poparazzi, does what exactly their name indicates: reveal who you are in other people’s eyes.
Our imagination is unlimited. We all have our own way of looking at the world—some visual, others analytical; some verbal, others quiet; some introvert, others extrovert. With the growing power of AI technology and mobile hardware, we will be able to leverage cameras to better express our thoughts, intentions, emotions, desires, and aesthetics in a completely new way.
There is a whole new world waiting to be discovered.