Purikura
Purikura ( Japanese プ リ ク ラ , short for: プ リ ン ト 倶 楽 部 , purinto kurabu ) are photo booths that produce small, self-adhesive photos that can be decorated with predefined images when taking the photo.
The first Purikura machines were developed by Atlus and Sega and came onto the market in July 1995.
As with karaoke , which is similarly popular in Japan, users are not just concerned with getting the finished end product. Rather, the mostly young customers also have fun creating the recordings together and exchanging the pictures with each other.
etymology
The word is a Wasei-Eigo as an amalgamation of the English expression print club .
Purikura machines
The self-contained machine in which Purikura is made has only the basic layout in common with a photo machine: A publicly accessible booth area is adjacent to the closed technical unit, in which the camera, computer system and printing unit are housed. In contrast to a typical photo booth, up to ten people fit into the photo booth at the same time, and there is often a bank in it. In some cases, wigs and other cosplay accessories are also provided in the cabins .
You choose the exposure, the background, the scene, etc. and can be photographed. If you have taken six photos, you go to another “side cabin”. There you edit the size of the images, decorate them with various image files and patterns that are kept in the system for this purpose, and add text.
Depending on the size setting, you can get sheets with up to 32 smaller photo stickers. With newer machines, the pictures can also be sent to cell phones.
distribution
So far there are only Purikura machines in Germany in Düsseldorf and Hamburg. However, Purikura is very popular in Japan. Hardly any game center can do without Purikura. Japanese school girls in particular use the system and exchange appropriate photo stickers with their friends.
literature
- Daisuke Okabe, Mizuko Ito, Jan Chipchase, Aico Shimizu: The Social Uses of Purikura: Photographing, Modding, Archiving, and Sharing. (PDF; 643 kB) - Position paper for the workshop Pervasive Image Capture and Sharing as part of the Eighth International Conference of Ubiquitous Computing. Orange County, California, Jan. 17-21. September 2006. (PDF file, English)
Web links
- Purikura Photo Booths with illustrations of how they work