Word: evens
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Party-shot was released in September without much fanfare, even though it's the first robo-cam on the market aimed at consumers. The obvious question is, have digital cameras, nowadays equipped with a considerable amount of artificial intelligence, come so far that they make human photographers obsolete? We tried out the Party-shot at a recent office potluck, and came away thinking it's less a substitute for a human photographer, and more a supplement...
...Mated with Sony's latest Cyber-shot models, either the WX1 or TX1, the dock is certainly less conspicuous than a roving photographer, making only a quiet whirring noise as it sweeps its surroundings for human faces. Most of the photos it takes are focused and properly exposed, even when the flash is off indoors. It frames portraits well (although at middle distances, it tends to cut people off at the waist) and it's not stymied by profiles or multiple faces, as long as nobody's moving. It can easily take 150 photos an hour at the high frequency...
...small ones, like a family birthday, when nobody wants to be on camera duty. It guarantees that there will be some sort of photo documentation, making it a fairly cheap form of insurance against a lazy or distracted human photographer. It also guarantees, I suspect, a proliferation of even more mediocre photos on Facebook...
...According to Traffic Minister Camiel Eurlings, the hope is that commuters faced with paying a hefty tax on their driving will opt to start carpooling or riding bicycles to work, and may, in the long term, even move to live closer to their jobs. "The goal is a different manner of paying for mobility that is more fair," Eurlings says. "Not paying more, but paying differently, with a positive income effect for most households." (See the 50 worst cars of all time...
...Naturally, the plan is not without its critics. The environmental group Friends of the Earth says it will do little to reduce traffic, since driving, for the most part, will still be cheaper than using public transport, even on long trips. And some transport experts argue that road improvement projects - such as building better links connecting the main highways that crisscross the country - would be more effective at reducing congestion. "It's not simply about using cars and roads less, but about using them better," says Christophe Nicodème, head of the European Union Road Federation...