Lifelogging via Vicon Camera

These may not be the usual blockbuster hits or Grammy-award-winning releases. Nevertheless, they have captured the attention of many in YouTube. Watching a stranger going through the motions of daily life has fascinated millions of people around the world. Lifelogging is all the craze as people turn to a detached artificial memory to record their life history. Vicon has now licensed the technology developed by Microsoft, Sensecam, to allow one to capture the nondescript daily activities of one’s life.

The life-logging Vicon camera uses accelerators and sensors to detect light or heat to take potentially significant shots every 30 seconds if necessary. For Alzheimer’s sufferers who face the threat of losing moments of their life even as they live them, this camera can help to capture some of these memories. Reviewing the daily activities is also thought to be useful for dementia patients to delay or mitigate memory decay. Worn around the neck, the camera is user-friendly and costs $820. It has 1 GB memory which can store up to 30,000 images.

While the camera will be initially targeted at researchers, it is expected to retail in 2010 for the consumer market. The potential is huge as children studying away from home can send their parents their daily life log while lovebirds in long-distance relationships can get a boost from this technology.