Thomas Hurst, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is trying to bring a new iPhone case to market that will change the way people take photos with their iPhone. The idea for the case, simply called Covr, comes from a device we’ve been using for decades, the remote control.
According to Geekwire,the idea for Covr came about while Hurst’s wife was battling late stage cancer. She wanted to take as many photographs of her family as she could. However, her illness, often meant that she was either too weak or her hands were too full or connected to machines, that she couldn’t’ hold the iPhone the way it’s meant to be held to take a pic with the iPhone camera app or other camera apps.
After hearing his wife’s concerns Hurst returned home. He didn’t head to a secret inventor lab in the basement, no he decided to take a relaxing break and flip back and forth between two baseball games on TV. That’s where the idea to solve his wife’s problem came up:
“…I was using my remote on my television, pointing it at the TV and hitting the jump button, back and forth between the two games, and it just dawned on me: wouldn’t it be nice if you could take pictures like this, the same way you hold a TV remote?” Hurst told Geekwire.
He mapped out the new device. He would make an iPhone case with a built in prism that would allow users to take photos in the same position that they would hold a remote control, an even more natural position, and one that didn’t require as much set up. Hurst went to work creating several prototypes of the device.
One of the main concerns that early testers have had was that the prism protrudes from the iPhone case. Hurst insists that he’s used prototypes of the device over the last year and he hasn’t broken the device, nor has he worn any holes in his pants pockets from the device.
Hurst has introduced a companion app for the case that turns the photos around. Because a prism is being used, the photos taken are actually upside down. He also reports he’s been working with other popular photo app developers to make other apps interact with the case and turn the pictures right side up as well.
Now while the case is great for the use case Hurst designed it for, it also seems to be a great case for taking candid photos. Holding the phone the same way you would hold a remote won’t cause someone to automatically think that their picture is being taken.This could come in handy for those with bashful kids who insist on making faces every time the phone is turned into the camera position.
With 5 days to go, the Covr case is about $15,000 away from their $80,000 goal on Kickstarter. Click over here to pre-order one right now.
