New Camera Promises to Capture Your Whole Life

OCt. 18, 2009— -- A camera you can wear as a pendant to record every moment of your life will soon be launched by a UK-based firm.

Originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer's disease, it might one day be used by consumers to create "lifelogs" that archive their entire lives.

Worn on a cord around the neck, the camera takes pictures automatically as often as once every 30 seconds. It also uses an accelerometer and light sensors to snap an image when a person enters a new environment, and an infrared sensor to take one when it detects the body heat of a person in front of the wearer. It can fit 30,000 images onto its 1-gigabyte memory.

The ViconRevue was originally developed as the SenseCam by Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, for researchers studying Alzheimer's and other dementias. Studies showed that reviewing the events of the day using SenseCam photos could help some people improve long-term recall.

Now Vicon, based in Oxford, UK, which specialises in motion-capture technology for the movie industry, has licensed the technology for the camera from Microsoft and intends to put it into large-scale production.

Imogen Moorhouse, Vicon's managing director, says that Microsoft has licensed the technology because it can't keep up with demand for the gadget. So far, only 500 have been made, most for use by researchers.

Vicon's version will retail for £500 (about $820) and will also be marketed to researchers at first; it will go on sale in the next few months. A consumer version should be released in 2010.

The gadget will be launched at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago this weekend, in conjunction with a conference on research using SenseCam so far.

A study published earlier this year described how SenseCam helped a person who had suffered encephalitis that permanently affected their ability to recall recent events. After reviewing SenseCam photos of a significant event every two days for three weeks, the person could remember it substantially better, even after months of not looking at the photos, compared with events that were not reviewed this way or were recorded only in a written diary.