We all have at the least one technologically challenged relative. We can e-mail photographs or put up them on a personal Internet web page for some of our loved ones, but there are others who need nothing to do with a pc, not to mention the Internet. The right gadget for sharing pictures with the computerless is the digital image body. This can be a system about the dimensions and shape of an strange image frame. It comprises an LCD display, which shows a number of images in a slideshow format, and it connects to the Internet by way of cellphone line to download new photos and information to display on the display. The frames are fairly comparable in development, although they do supply some totally different features. On this edition of HowStuffWorks, we'll have a look at the Ceiva Digital Photograph Receiver. Before we get into precisely how it really works, let's see what it does. The concept is that a person who does have a pc, a digital digital camera and pc expertise buys the frame, sets up the account and passes it on.

Once the account is arrange, you (the individual with the pc) add images to the Ceiva Internet site. Every night time, the digital image body (within the computerless particular person's home) makes use of the cellphone line to connect with the Ceiva servers and download any new pictures. You can too management all of the body's settings through the net site. It has most of the identical elements as the computer on your desktop, but they're too much less complicated in the body because they solely should carry out a single process. The central processing unit (CPU) in the Ceiva digital image frame is similar to the type utilized in small, digital handheld games. The most processor-intensive task carried out by this CPU is downloading photos from the net site. The rest of the time, it does not break a sweat. It also has some Flash memory, Memory Wave which is where the photographs, settings and a number of the working software stay.

Each forms of Memory Wave are persistent -- no data is lost if the unit is unplugged. The body has a 33.6-Kbps modem, which it makes use of to connect with the Web and download the new photos you publish. The display is a 640x480-pixel, passive-matrix liquid crystal show (LCD) with a viewing area of about 5 by 7 inches (thirteen by 18 cm). Such a display is thin enough that the digital body isn't a lot thicker than an unusual picture frame. The photographs are displayed in 12-bit shade, which signifies that approximately 4,100 totally different colors can be introduced on the display. The only consumer-operated controls on the frame are a black button, which adjusts the brightness of the display, and a white button that turns the body on when the consumer first plugs it in and can be used to manually dial in. The Ceiva frame uses an embedded working system referred to as PSOS.

This working system is designed for units like PDAs, electrical-testing gear and set-high boxes. Let's take a look at how the Ceiva body works. If the person presses and holds the white button on the back of the frame, it dials up and connects to the Web. The $50-per-year price for the Ceiva service consists of entry to the Internet by the use of an area phone number. The connection to the Internet is used solely to download the brand new photos and settings to the body. There isn't a interactivity, MemoryWave Community no Internet access and no e-mail. The machine is designed to behave like an image body, not a pc. Once logged on, the body compares the pictures already on the body to those ready to be despatched, downloading any new ones. It additionally downloads any new settings. When it is completed downloading, the frame hangs up the telephone line and begins displaying the brand new photos one after one other.