The Engadget blog reports that, at its Canon Expo, " . . . Canon introduced a new technology called SmileShot that will only snap a picture when the focused subject is grinning." While smiles are Canon's first priority, I'd imagine that this technology could be adapted to sense any number of snapshot-degrading circumstances.
What about a setting that takes a picture only if the subject's eyes are open (but with an override button for recording those drunken college evenings when someone passes-out and is painted pastel colors and tea-bagged)? Perhaps "bad hair"-sensing technology? Maybe a "lapels too wide" setting? A "nose-picking" sensor would be a must for parents of small children and for school photographers.
The possibilities seem endless, but too much much of this image control technology could easily prove counterproductive. Take those school photographers I mentioned above -- if you set-up a group shot of my daughter's pre-kindergarten class with the "smiling", "eyes open", "hair combed", and "fingers out of noses" settings all enabled, those kids are going to be in junior high before the shutter opens.
It seems to me that, as we're unlikely to embrace our imperfections, perhaps we should just ditch photography alltogether and usher in a renaissance of portrait painting or heroic poem composition. For myself, though, an heroic poem isn't necessary -- a dirty limerick would suit me just fine.
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