How is IT transforming Korea?

How is IT transforming Korea?


In Korea, the digital camera is called as Dica, for short. Until five years ago, Dica was single. All it really cared about was upgrading itself constantly by adapting everything it could possibly do to improve its image quality and its zooming ability. Four years ago, Dica went out on a first date with a camcorder and grabbed full attention from the publicity. A year later, it changed its partner to an MP3 player, but it was soon found itself together with a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP). The second generation digital cameras and cellular phones are thinking of moving in together, calling themselves DicaPhone, meaning Digital Camera Phone.So, how are the digital camera and its changing partners changing Korea? Koreans have become more familiar with the visual media than printed media over the last five years. Studies show that people today are more in favor of being entertained by images and video than reading. The National Statistical Office analyzed that the workers in the city area are spending 34.9% on entertainment. On the other hand, the expense rate on books and magazines stopped at 5.1%. Now that Koreas' full attention is given to visual media, digital cameras have turned into a ubiquitous item. This was proven by 88.9% increase in production of digital electronics including cameras.With digital cameras everywhere, everybody can now be a field reporter. We call these people "citizen reporters". "Dog poo" girl is a good example of this. A couple of years ago, a woman was taking the subway with her puppy and the puppy happened to relieve itself on the subway seat. The woman left it as it was and got out of the subway. The anonymous citizen reporter took photos of it with a digital camera phones and put it online. Thousands of comments were made and soon enough, an anonymous citizen's report became the hottest news around. Within a few weeks, a new law was made to forbid pets on the subway. Photography is no longer a simple hobby, it gives people the power to change the law and change the society.Dicas and DicaPhones are now the pets that people can carry around everywhere. On the street, in restaurants, and in coffee shops, at least one or two people are taking their own self portraits using their digital cameras or digital camera phones. When Sky and Samsung made a cellular phone with a camera lens that could turn 360 degrees, its users were able to take a look at themselves on the phone screen as they took a self portrait. New phones come with the lenses both on the front and back. Even digital cameras like the Nikon S4 have a 360 degreeturning lens to aid Selca, the Korean way of saying "self portrait camera". All sorts of pictures are uploaded to blogs, mini-homepages, websites, and portals for different purposes.Since these photos are open for everyone to see online, a magic wand that gives a little touch to a photo is needed. Here, the fairy is Photoshop. People who are taking the most advantage from Photoshop are celebrities. Before, a model had to cover a facial imperfection through make-up only. Now, a little touch through Photoshop can erase the freckles, brighten skin tone, and reduces wrinkles. Digital cameras have transformed a typical person to someone who can make difference in community and beautified uglies to pretties.If Digital Single-lens Reflex Cameras (DSLR) were a hot issue last year, Premium Convergence Digital Cameras that are added with various features to the compact digital cameras are the new rising stars this year. DSLR's picture quality is better than that of compact cameras, but its gigantic size and the costly price has made buyers hesitate before parting with their money.Moreover, buyers want to be able to occasionally use the video feature on compact digital cameras that DSLR don't have as function. Samsung Techwin, Canon, Nikon, and Sony this year have improved the compact digital cameras' picture quality to DSLR standard with unique design and special features to compete in the market. Since the demand of digital cameras was the highest in the year 2000 with its highest record in sales, companies are targeting those who purchased cameras in 2000 to buy new ones this year.These brand new digital cameras with upgraded features are not as pricy as the last year. Samsung Techwin is currently the number one compact digital camera selling company. In second place is Canon Korea followed by Sony Korea. Nikon, Fuji Film, and Olympus are highly competing each other to bit the record. Samsung Techwin was the first company to produce the cameras with MP3 and PMP functions. The concept of convergence this year is not only adding more features to the previous version, but it also completed its added fuction. Some products are coming with the touch screen LCD, while Kodak, Nikon, and Sony promoted digital cameras with wireless lan that connects to the PC without any cables. The latest model from Sony even allows the wireless transfer of data from one camera to another as long as they are from the same brand.A strengthened convergence function has increased the LCD size and memory capacity. The new LCD screen enlarged its size from 2 inch screen to 3 and 3.5 inch screen. The internal memory was previously 10 MB, but it is now up to 512 MB. Those who change their cameras in 2008 with the newest model I7 from Samsung Techwin will be able to travel overseas with no travel guides. This slim camera contains 4500 travel information of 30 countries in 512MB internal memory.Sony Cybershot G1 2008 users will be able to share joy with the pictures. With the Wi-Fi, four sony cameras can transfer data to each other. On top of 3.5 inch LCD screen and 2 GB internal memory, MP3 player and photo album searching feature are added to provide the joy of watching and listening. Nikon Coolpix P5000 will be good for those who travel or hike often. Its users will be able to take high quality photos with 10 megapixel 1/1.8-inch CCD without having to worry about taking blurry photos due to mild vibration. Lens shift VR and ISO 64-1600 reduces the vibration to take a stable picture.Best Shot Selector (BSS) function identifies and saves the sharpest image automatically from ten sequential shots, and Face-priority AF will satisfy those who loves to take self portrait photos. Digital cameras and their changing partners have a multitude of functions. Sometimes they act as social activists. At other times they are reporters. They even can be considered as plastic surgeons. Modern digital cameras and digital camera phones' all-inone entertainment systems are the future. These rather than dogs (especially those that go to the toilet on subways) are rapidly becoming man's best friend. CGE