Instagram could be headed for a meta implosion of ironic proportions. First there were cheap plastic cameras and Polaroids that people thought were cool, but seemed to take crappy photos, so they fell out of use and popularity. Then everyone had cameras on their phones but their photos looked really crappy. So Instagram made phone photos look intentionally crappy by emulating the photos of the old, cheap cameras.
Now we're back where we started as Instagram could potentially be made into a camera itself.
At the moment it's just an idea, but the Socialmatic camera proposes to turn the clocks back on the digital Instagram revolution by making a device that takes those cool, retro-looking photos and actually prints them on paper instantly.
"People want to feel more reality, I think we are going to be bored of total virtuality," says project founder and Italian marketing consultant, Antonio De Rosa.
The Socialmatic is not De Rosa's first product idea, and while it seems like a good one, it will be very difficult to pull off, even with funding. There are no real specs for how the hardware would work or how it would be built. For now it's just a cool mock-up and an idea. De Rosa also wanted to make an iWatch and an iCam but says neither of those came to fruition.
To make the project a reality, De Rosa is running an Indiegogo campaign that is just getting off the ground. He's trying to raise $50,000 to create the first prototype that he could shop around and hopefully use to secure a manufacturer that would mass produce the device.
Or, De Rosa says, he hopes the Indiegogo campaign might also attract enough attention to actually get Instagram, and now their owner, Facebook, interested.
Getting these giants to buy in is actually his first choice because there are still a lot of tricky issues to work out — like how his camera is going to create photos that mimic those on Instagram. And at the moment De Rosa's virtual camera mock-up directly borrows from the Instagram design, which he knows will have to change if he doesn't get their backing.
"Maybe in this time, with the IPO, Zuck and co. can have the need to have something 'real' in their hands," he says.
Today there are plenty of apps that help you print your Instagram photos. But unlike those programs — where you often have to wait for your photos to be printed and mailed to you — Socialmatic creates instant gratification – like a Polaroid for Instagram.
"Instagram is a first step, making photo and share it. But is this enough?" De Rosa asks. "I want to have real emotion. I want to have real colors."
De Rosa says that the Socialmatic camera doesn't completely turn its back on the virtual aspects of its inspirational app. Along with the camera he's also proposed to create an app that would allow people to post their Socialmatic photos on Instagram and elsewhere online via the camera's WiFi or Bluetooth connection.
De Rosa also takes Instagram's social media prowess seriously and says each analog photo created by the camera would be printed with a QR code that could be used to identify the photo's creator. Say for instance you came across a cool Socialmatic photo hanging at a coffee shop. All you would have to do is snap a photo of the QR code with your mobile phone to identify and start following the user who shot it.
