I suspect most people don't want it. I can imagine lots of people calling customer service "Q: why doesn't my camera work?", "A: Did you open the cover?"
There's just a valid an argument to do the same for phones. How many phones ship with camera covers and how many users want them?
You can get a stick on camera cover for $5 or less if you want one. I have them on my laptops but not on my phone. They came in packs of 6 so I have several left.
> I can imagine lots of people calling customer service "Q: why doesn't my camera work?", "A: Did you open the cover?"
In some over-engineered world, when the camera cover is engaged the webcam video feed would be replaced by an image of the text "Slide camera cover open" (in the user's language) and an animation showing the user how to do so.
We have that on the most recent generation of Framework Laptop. When the hardware privacy switch is engaged, the image sensor is electrically powered off and the camera controller feeds a dummy frame with an illustration of the switch.
Is there a video or some images of this somewhere? I would love to see a demonstration.
This doesn’t seem that wild to me. Zoom already prompts me to unmute my microphone when I cough.
It's also a moving part. Worse, a part the customer moves. Which means more opportunity for crap getting crammed in or breaking.
The cover on my laptop's camera is behind the glass. I suppose there is a chance that the slider itself could get damaged, but at least they minimized the exposed surface that could be damaged.
That said, I really can't comment on how durable it is. I only remove the cover about a half dozen times a year.
I had that exact discussion with somebody recently, and it took me a few minutes to realize that their laptop had a physical camera cover that somehow disables camera permissions in windows too. So yeah, happens a ton I would imagine.