Class Two - Digital Imaging

This blog will talk about digital imaging. How photos are taken, stored and shared.

The ways that digital images can be taken are:

- Video Cameras

                                                 (Digital Video, Personal Video, 2011)

- Digital Cameras

                                               (Digital Camera Picture, personal image, 2011)

- Laptops

- Webcams

- Camera Phones

They can be manipulated by:

- Computer software

- Physical Hardware (e.g. printing a photo)

"A new technology is rarely superior to an old one in every feature"

I think that this statement is true in relation to digital imaging because it is better than the old technology of taking a photo on film and then printing it out, in the sense that you can take more images and can manipulate them easier. There are a lot of benefits to having new digital imaging technology over the old technology, but there are also things that are not as good as the old technology. We used to have to print photos to be able to keep them, we would have to go through the whole process of printing, then storing in a photo album and if anyone wanted to look at the photos we would have to pull out the photo album and show them the photos. Through this process we would build up an attachment to those photos and the memories that came with them. Now we can take as many photos as we want, upload them onto the internet in seconds and we know that they will always be there and we never really have to look at them again because our friends can look at them when ever they want to.

There are ethical issues that surround modern day digital imaging, while we are able to take hundreds of images at a time we can not always be sure who we are taking pictures of. We may get images of complete strangers and then upload them onto Facebook without that persons permission. A good example of this is when google maps took photos for their road side view to be put on the internet but they did not check if they had people in the photos before putting them on the net. They ended up having pictures of things that people might not like the world to see, as this clip shows someone involved in a car accident

I know that I would not like it if this was me being hit by a car, then being displayed for all to see.

Digital Imaging is a very useful tool for occupational therapists. It can help us to keep track of how our clients are developing (mostly in relation to the physical side of OT). Lets use someone who has bad grip in their hand (and can not hold a cup as a result of this) as an example, as OT's we can take a photo of how they hold a cup or try to hold the cup in our initial assessment stage, then after we have worked with the client on their grip on the cup we can take another photo of how far they have come. This can be used as evidence of improvement or even that they may no longer need occupational therapy. The OT could also take a video of an OT session to show the family of the client, with the client permission (Verdonck & Ryan, 2006).

Reference List

Verdonck, M. C. & Ryan, S. (2006) Mainstream technology as an occupational therapy tool: technophobe or technogeek.  British Journal of Occupational Therapy 71 (6).