A snip from the specification of the SONY Cybershot T70 compact digital camera.

Technology, said Heidegger, “is the art of arranging the world so that one doesn’t have to experience it”. Cue some of the new SONY Cybershot range which come equipped with a ‘smile shutter’ that recognises grinning subjects and then automatically takes a shot. Apparently, when several people are in the shot, the shutter only fires when the main subject – who must be manually selected – smiles. A sequence of six smile shots can be taken without manually pressing the shutter.