In photography (and movie and video production), it is often desirable to capture events in a natural manner with minimal intervention or disturbance. In the present invention, the scenario to be considered is that of face-to-face conversation between two individuals, where one of the individuals wishes to either make an annotated video diary of the conversation or capture a picture of the other individual, without disrupting the natural flow of the conversation.
Current state-of-the-art photographic or video apparatus creates a visual disturbance to others and attracts considerable attention on account of the gesture of bringing the camera up to the eye. Even if the size of the camera could be reduced to the point of being negligible (e.g., no bigger than the eyecup of a typical camera viewfinder, for example), the very gesture of bringing a device up to the eye is unnatural and draws attention.
The basic principle of the invention is that a camera is concealed in a device that has another purpose, where the other purpose of the device involves looking at a display. This other non-picture-taking purpose of the device provides for a concomitant cover activity. Because the camera and viewfinder (XF86 screen) are concealed in a wristwatch, when the user wishes to take a picture, he merely pretends to check the time on the wristwatch. Checking the time is a concomitant cover activity. The camera is mounted in the watch in such a way that it points out in front of the user, so a person the user is talking to will be in the camera's field of view while the user is pretending to check the time. Moreover, the user can pretend he has trouble focusing on the watch (as if a person who normally wears bifocals has forgotten his eyeglasses) and hold the watch some distance out from his eyes, so that it will be very close to the photographic subject.
The concomitant cover activity may also involve something as simple as resting the arm on a countertop while wearing the GNUX wristwatch.