Olympus have now announced they will also enter this new genre of a basic camera without viewfinders or memory cards to be controlled by smartphones which will store the images via WiFi.<\/p>\n
It is an extension of their current Micro Four Thirds camera technology which already allows one to view a live image that their camera is seeing through their smartphone and select an AF point and remotely control the camera with the image being sent back to the smartphone.<\/p>\n
Obviously, if this is all one is doing, one does not need a viewfinder or memory card on their camera and you just need a cheaper “camera module” with a lens – hence the “Open Platform” technology.<\/p>\n
I suspect they will also extend this technology to the Google Glasses-like patent they have registered – so you might control the camera using your glasses and the image then gets saved to the smartphone in your pocket.<\/p>\n
It may open up all sorts of possibilities – although these probably can be achieved already with existing cameras.<\/p>\n
However, the “Open Platform” is aimed at allowing 3rd party developers to create their own apps to control the cameras and come up with potentially novel applications.<\/p>\n