A
camera is an optical instrument for recording
images, which may be stored locally, transmitted to another location, or both. The images may be individual still
photographs or sequences of images constituting
videos or
movies. The word
camera comes from
camera obscura, which means "dark chamber" and is the
Latin name of the original device for projecting an image of external reality onto a flat surface. The modern photographic camera evolved from the camera obscura. The functioning of the camera is very similar to the functioning of the
human eye.