The duck as a shutterbug

(Credit: Camerautomata)

Besides kimchi and tear-jerking dramas, Koreans are exporting creatively hacked cameras. While on vacation, Taeyoon Choi had a flash of brilliance when he saw that his shots looked no different from those taken by other tourists. With some tinkering, he fitted a point-and-shoot into Charlie, his "Magical Image Digesting Duck."

As with any good inventions, there is more to Charlie than meets the eye. Hooked up to the shooter is a vacuum cleaner, printer, and MP3 player. All the devices are linked to a central controller that handles the automated operations of the robotic waterfowl.

Charlie follows Choi around New York and, whenever someone takes a photo of it, it senses the flash and automatically snaps a picture of the person. The mechanical bird then prints out the picture (from its rear end, unfortunately) or posts it online when a wireless hot spot is available. Choi says he built Charlie to "liberate cameras from human operation."

(Source: Crave Asia)