As a product of Nokia’s HERE division, Rebel was intended to be a simple to use, but very powerful connected camera for outdoor adventures.

Rebel began development in 2013 and was the world’s first truly connected camera. With LTE, GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth, and NFC – not to mention a 41MP camera and IP68 rating – this was a very capable, durable product with enormous potential.

As users captured images, videos and location data in the field, their information would be automatically uploaded to the cloud whenever a Wifi or LTE connection was available. Their data could later be accessed anytime through a web app, or could be posted directly to social media from the device.

I was a part of an amazing team that developed Rebel, and was a key contributor to it’s design.

Unfortunately for Rebel, HERE underwent a management change which came with a priority shift away from manufactured products. While the product reached a highly developed state and was very close to mass production, it never appeared in the marketplace.

Rebel (shown above with it’s sibling product, Tracks) was an exercise in severe minimalism. It’s truly seamless form was defined by two continuous surfaces wrapping around three sides each, and one meandering seam that defined the product’s edges.

One of Rebel’s most innovative features was it’s one piece, seamless housing. The image above shows the housing in a bending jig that allowed the waterproof technical package to be inserted from the right. The housing would then spring back to it’s original shape, sealing the technical package within.

Shown above is the entire suite of accessories developed for Rebel.

The images above show functioning rebel prototypes being used in the field.

Shown above are what we called Motion Postcards – images or videos stamped with location data of the user’s choosing, ready to post to social media.