Artefact asks “What’s next in digital camera design?” with an interesting new prototype called the WVIL (Wireless Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens). According to the Artefact site: “The patent-pending WVIL system takes the connectivity and application platform capabilities of today’s smart phones and wirelessly connects them with interchangeable full SLR-quality optics. It is the inevitable solution for photographers who expect the power of modern mobile devices but who also demand uncompromised quality.”

In an article that features two compelling videos, Fast Company’s Co. Design suggests the WVIL provides a possible glimpse at the future of photography if digital cameras and cellphone cameras continue to merge, “leaving just a lens with a chip and a screen on the back of it.”

Artefact explains that many possibilities stem from this idea. According to Markus Wierzoch, WVIL’s lead industrial designer: “With the first digital cameras, the industry was quick to replace the medium, film, with a sensor, but the rest stayed the same. But modern connectivity opens up a lot of different options, like being able to detach the lens from the viewfinder. What if you could go to a party, mount three or four lenses all over the room, and control them all wirelessly with one ‘camera’?”

The Artefact team has cleverly redesigned the digital camera as “a camera operating system,” one that can be controlled from a touchscreen-based viewfinder and could quite possibly appeal to prosumer photographers who have outgrown their traditional DSLRs and no longer want a bag full of expensive gear. Artefact believes the WVIL could become a reality within three years.