New do-it-yourself camera teaches tech basics to kids

A do-it-yourself digital camera that teaches children about the technology behind the working of the device has been developed by an Indian-American scientist.
Users of 'Bigshot' camera have to assemble its parts in the correct order to make it work. An online guide explains the science behind them.
The kit was developed by a computer science professor at the Columbia University, funded by Google and the US Department of Defense.
"It's about getting kids' hands dirty. In an age when software rules I want kids to know how to build hardware," Bigshot's creator, Professor Shree Nayar, told the BBC.
"We describe concepts that children would normally encounter at college, but try to make them accessible even to an 8 or 10 year old.

"That's where a lot of our effort has gone in - to try and make things like image processing, electronics and display technology understandable at some level to younger kids," Nayar said.

The camera features a hand crank to allow owners to take pictures when its battery runs out, and a rotatable wheel featuring three different lenses to let owners choose between regular, panoramic and 3D shots.
Nayar has licensed the design to Hong Kong-based manufacturer EduScience which will pay him royalties on its sales.
He plans to use part of the cash to send Bigshot cameras to underprivileged children around the globe.

Nayar first came up with the idea of his camera in 2006 and developed the concept at Columbia University where he heads its Computer Vision Laboratory.
Over the following years he sent out prototypes to children in India, Japan, Vietnam and the US and then used their feedback to tweak the design.