A photo from the camera mounted above Zane's crib. It's a self-contained wireless network camera. Inside there's a web server and enough smarts to mail or upload photos at intervals or based on motion. I connect to it using the laptop or my iPod Touch(which is wireless) using the built in web browser. At work, out in the garage, or anywhere there is internet access I can peek in on Zane. Sometimes its just to see my little boy, other times it's to check if he's still asleep -- without walking down the hall and cracking open his door...the sounds of which could wake him.

Having the camera on the net lets his Grandparents in New York, Grandma in Wyoming, and the Aunts and Uncles and friends scattered around the rest of the globe peek in on him from time to time. Of course he's only in his crib during the night (no light) and a few hours in the morning, so the window of viewing times is small. Any other photos will have to come from my camera when I remember to take some shots.

As much as I like my DLSR it is not highly portable, especially when toting baby Zane around. There's no slipping it into a pocket and I refuse to hang it around my neck. Even with a pocket-able camera you have the issue of getting it out, framing, focusing, and taking a shot without trying to influence the subject and somehow anticipating when a good shot is coming up.

What's really needed, and we have the technology to do this, is a parent cam. Maybe it is inside a set of thick, black-rimmed glasses or maybe it's disguised as a hat, but it needs to be out of the way, not too obvious, and always on. This way you NEVER miss a shot. It's constantly recording photos or video, maybe throwing them away after a few minutes if you don't tell it to save them. If a great shot goes by you click a button, wriggle your nose, or something and it saves the last minute's photos into a memory card.

Turns out there are already products like this. ActionDVR markets a head mounted PVR to the hunting/fishing guys, which records everything you see for up to eight hours. They use a Jones Cam. If you dig a little deeper into the JC product line you'll find this lipstick camera which seems pretty close to the parent cam idea if not for the two thousand dollar price. We'd need a Fischer Price version. That and a slightly higher quality version.

It could be wireless, streaming over the internet, but that's a little overkill. Being able to capture some of the fun moments with Zane, when he's in my arms or standing on my knees, would be enough. It would open up a whole new way of remembering and sharing. As soon as I get out a real camera I am immediately distancing myself from Zane and there's a new thing to be distracted by, so the resultant shots, no matter how good, are not typically anything like what I'd originally set out to photograph.