The system addresses the problem of managing multimedia memoryrecords comprising photographs and sounds. It arose out of work to define the value of sound with images and the relative merits ofpaper and screen-based playback (Frohlich & Tallyn 1999). Multipletypes of sound appear to add value to photographs, and consumers express a desire for playing back sounds from paper prints as well as from screens (Frohlich 2004). Although it is possible to store sound within a printed photograph and play it back on a handheld device (Frohlich, Adams & Tallyn 2000), this method is potentiallyexpensive and cannot easily accommodate the playback of multiple sound clips per image. Instead we show here the potential of an overhead camera which automatically recognises a printed imagebeneath it and plays back the associated sound. An augmented deskof this kind is potentially cheaper, and has the advantage of beingable to playback multiple tracks concurrently – either for a single photograph, or for multiple photographs arranged together.
