Smile, your camera is watching you

I guess I should be used to surprising new technology developments by now but I’m not. My father has driven a Lexus car for several years and I have seen things on his car that I never would have thought anyone needed. Like cooled seats (why should the heated seats have all of the fun?), auto rain-sensing windshield wipers and laser cruise control.

Yet here I am again thinking that digital cameras have pretty much maxed out on features, save the constant increase in megapixels each year. Wrong again. Sony is introducing a new feature on select digital cameras called the Smile Shutter that automatically detects smiles on subject’s faces. All you need to do is focus on the person in the picture, enable the Smile Shutter and fully press the shutter button. The camera takes care of the rest. Once it detects the subject is smiling, it automatically takes the picture.

You can even set the Smile Level sensitivity so the camera can differentiate between a faint smile and a hearty laugh. And if you have multiple people in your picture you can use the LCD screen to select which person you want to use for the smile detection or you can let the camera decide for itself.

Consider me surprised once again.