The Eyes Have It

When Cisco Systems acquired Pure Digital in 2009, it paid a whopping $590 million. Pure Digital introduced the “Pure Digital Point & Shoot” video camera in 2006, a basic unit that provided an easily-uploadable digital recording video – originally to allow users to burn a DVD through their computers. Initially available through the CVS drugstore chain, the camera evolved into the Flip Video a year later, zooming to the top of the video camera charts, capturing about 13% of the entire market. It was the camera of choice for the YouTube generation, easy to use, easy to upload and very cheap. The little camera was everywhere as amateur directors were concocting their filmic debuts on the worldwide Web.

But cell phones were also evolving, pushed to do more as tablet computing and netbooks also provided additional attractive abilities and concomitant and totally ubiquitous apps; most of the higher-end newer model cell phones were increasingly able to record video… even in an HD format… and who needed a second camera to do what the cell phone was already able to replicate? As event exploded across the Middle East, deposing dictators and fomenting rebellion, cell phones with enhanced video capacities were the mainstay of news reports on sophisticated television channels like CNN, MSNBC and Fox. The images showed the world what was going on.

In mid-April, sensing the flood of competition, Cisco Systems threw in the towel, abandoning their Flip camera play to focus on their core competency of switching and routing systems for cable, telecommunications and the Web: “As part of the plan, Cisco will close down its Flip business and ‘support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.’ Cisco will also refocus its Home Networking business and will integrate Cisco umi [Cisco’s consumer-focused system that lets people connect to each other using videoconferencing on their HD television] into the company’s Business TelePresence product line. As part of the transition, Cisco plans to eliminate 550 jobs.

“Cisco CEO John Chambers issued this statement: ‘We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy…As we move forward, our consumer efforts will focus on how we help our enterprise and service provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network’s ability to deliver on those offerings.’” TechCrunch.com, April 12^th.

But what is really forced the issue is “cameras everywhere, all the time.” Whether it is police crime-stopping cameras on the sidewalks of Manchester, England, traffic enforcement cameras (that result in automatic traffic tickets to the unwary) in Beverly Hills, business surveillance cameras in almost any store you enter, traffic flow cameras on freeways, infrared cameras mounted on police helicopters or some idiot with a video camera or video-capable cell phone recording away, a modern city-dweller in the developed world (add the developing world as those “personal cell phone documentaries” noted above will attest) has absolute zero privacy once he or she leaves their home. And who’s to say that there isn’t a camera perched across the street recording through the front window or someone with a miniature camera-bug conducting warranted or unwarranted surveillance. Somewhere out there are dozens of recorded images… of you!

I’m Peter Dekom, and all those big brother movies of a decade or two ago are coming true!