The Pileus System is an umbrella but also a camera and a Flickr photo browser. The system combines the Pileus Umbrella and the Pileus WebService.

When the user takes photos with the camera on the top of the umbrella, the pictures are uploaded and shared on Flickr with some context tags immediately via the Pileus WebService. The grip module has a web connection and ID for a social contents sharing for the WebService. Snapping action is used for a browsing operation with an accelerometer installed on the grip.

The system seems to be a bit too bulky but anything that can make rainy days a moment to look forward to is fine by me.

A work developed by Sho Hashimoto, Shingo Iwata, Takashi Matsumoto, Aya Tomatsu, Naoki Kubota and Naohito Okude at Keio University, Media Design, Okude Lab.

The umbrella will be demoed at Ubicomp, September 17-21, 2006.

More fun with umbrellas: The polite umbrella; Choreographed umbrellas; umbrella.net, a series of networked umbrellas that lighten up whenever they find a node; the ibrella.