Digital Candid Camera

Computers have found a place on most desktops. Now they’re trying for a place on coffee tables as well.

Photojournalist Rick Smolan, creator of the book “A Day in the Life of America” and its offshoots, turned his camera on some of the estimated 15 billion microchips in use around the world to illustrate the degree to which they’ve become a part of everyday life.

“One Digital Day” includes pictures taken by 100 photographers in a 24-hour period last July. As expected, the $40 book contains many shots of personal and laptop computers, World Wide Web pages and the inside of Intel chip-making factories. (Intel, the world’s biggest producer of microchips, sponsored the book, which features an introduction by Chief Executive Andrew S. Grove.)

But there are also some surprising images, including a toilet showroom in Tokyo where a $3,500 model made by Toto uses microprocessors to control a seat warmer, an automatic lid opener, an air deodorizer, a water spray and a blow-dryer. In Johannesburg, South Africa, pensioners line up to use a fingerprint scanner to confirm their identity before they can receive their checks. In Israel, an employee of the popular Web site Virtual Jerusalem (https://www.virtual.co.il) stuffs e-mailed prayers into cracks of the Western Wall. And in Urbana, Ill., a farmer uses an ultrasound device to measure the meat and fat content of a cow headed for slaughter.

Locally, the “Digital Day” photographers caught basketball star-turned-businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson in Beverly Hills checking out the multimedia lab at Creative Artists Agency (which was incorrectly described as located in Hollywood) and a Coast Guard captain in Long Beach patrolling semi-undercover from a kayak equipped with a cell phone and a global positioning satellite receiver.