Sensor Illumination: Exploring Design Qualities and Ethical Implications of Smart Cameras and Image/Video Analytics

Drawing analogies between smart cameras and electric lighting, we highlight and extrapolate design trends towards always-on sensing in intimate contexts, and the functional expansion of smart cameras as general-purpose and multi-functional devices. Employing a research through design (RtD) approach, we extrapolate these trends using speculative scenarios, materialize the scenarios by designing and constructing lighting-inspired smart camera fixtures, and self-experiment with these fixtures to introduce and exacerbate privacy and security issues, and inspire creative workarounds and design opportunities for sensor-level regulation. We synthesize our insights by presenting 8 smart camera sensing design qualities for addressing privacy, security, and related social and ethical issues.