A great piece of work that marries photography/art, engineering, and social impact.

Once Bigshot is put together, it functions like any other digital camera — even better than many, in that it features multiple lenses situated on a wheel. The wheel rotates to produce not only a standard perspective but also panoramic views via a wide-angle lens, and 3D images via a stereo lens. The website teaches photographic techniques, from traditional rules of composition (dividing the image field into thirds) to stitching together multiple pictures into David Hockneyesque collages. Energy produced by turning the hand crank powers the camera when its battery runs out of charge, and Bigshot’s single-LED flash can be used to each semiconductor technology.

Nayar has field-tested prototypes in New York, Bangalore and Vung Tau City, Vietnam, leading day-long workshops in which children build cameras in the morning, learn about photography techniques in the afternoon and present their images in the evening. (He is currently testing Bigshot in Japan and is planning forays into the Middle East and Africa.) Soon, he hopes, more of these exchanges will occur virtually, by way of his website. “Bringing down walls, visually transporting yourself to see how your eight-year-old peer in Israel, the West Bank or Africa lives,” he said. “That has great value.”

It's simply beautiful in all respects, by making an impact on young lives through hands-on education and exploration.