The Camera Bag: TriggerHappy Remote Lets You Trigger Your DSLR from Your Smart Phone

Your smart phone can do everything these days so why not use it to help trigger your camera? That's the thinking behind a new product called the TriggerHappy Camera Remote that lets you fire your digital SLR just by touching your phone's screen.

The product comes with two things:

• TriggerHappy Unit -  a one-meter cable with an embedded signal processor inside that attaches to the standard audio jack on your iPhone or Android phone and then connects to your DSLR

• TriggerHappy App - an app, soon to be available in the Apple App store and the Android Market, that triggers your DSLR

Once it's set up and the app is launched on your phone, just touch the red "Fire" screen to trip the shutter on your DSLR. Press and hold the fire screen to shoot off a burst.

(According to the TriggerHappy website, it's compatible with a wide variety of Canon and Nikon DSLRs and many from other brands as well.)

The TriggerHappy Camera Remote also offers bulb functionality for long exposures; a time-lapse mode using an intervalometer; an HDR mode; and a Bramping (aka Bulb Ramping) feature for long time-lapses such as from day into night.

TriggerHappy's main designer Kevin Harrington, an engineer and photo enthusiast based in Utah, says other features are also in development including face detection, lighting detection, and a way to trigger the camera when the accelerometer data of the phone changes.

Harrington says he designed TriggerHappy because traditional camera remotes were too expensive and require you to carry an extra device around. Since your phone is always with you, why not figure out a way to just use that?

Right now, the TriggerHappy Camera Remote is still a Kickstarter project but Harrington and his team have raised over $55,000 so far. A pledge of $50 or more will get you the TriggerHappy Unit and the app for iPhone and Android devices.