Pen-shaped modular camera assembly

1. A pen-shaped modular camera assembly with a cylindrical camera module, a cylindrical printer module, and a dispenser module, said assembly having a central processor comprising:

a RISC processor core;

a memory operatively storing operating instructions for the processor core and image data for manipulation by said core; and

a serial bus interface for communicating with the camera module, the printer module and the dispenser module.

2. The modular camera assembly of claim 1 , wherein the RISC processor core includes a digital signal processor (DSP) to facilitate integer multiplication.

3. The modular camera assembly of claim 1 , wherein an operating frequency of the RISC core is a multiple of an operating frequency of the serial bus interface.

4. The modular camera assembly of claim 1 , which includes a parallel interface operatively arranging the processor core in signal communication with user interface control and display portions of the assembly.

5. The modular camera assembly of claim 1 , wherein the memory includes instructions whereby the processor is operatively configured to apply one or more visual effects to an image captured by the camera module prior to said image being printed by the printer module.

6. The modular camera assembly of claim 5 , wherein the processor applies clip-art effects relating to a respective topic or genre to the image.

7. The modular camera assembly of claim 1 , which includes a battery configured so that electrical energy is supplied to relevant modules via the serial bus interface.