Black Box Recorder For Memory

The black box called “Sensecam” is simple it uses digital pictures and audio to archive an experience. It has a digital camera and an accelerometer to measure movement. Worn like a pendant around the neck, it was developed at Microsoft’s research lab in Cambridge in England. Specifically designed for Alzheimers’  disease patients, it catalogues events for them to remember that they would have otherwise forgotten about. For example a holiday, birthday, and street address by creating a summary of the resulting content by picking crucial images, and reviewing them periodically to awaken and strengthen the memory of the event.

Vicon, a British company that has licensed the technology, wants to market it to young people interested in logging their lives and posting the results to Web sites like Facebook and YouTube. For the elderly, though, it could herald a new kind of relationship between mind and machine: even as plaque gets deposited on the brain, everyday experience is deposited on silicon, then retrieved.

The Sensecam takes hundreds of pictures in a short period. When researchers began exploring it as a memory aid a few years ago, they had patients and caregivers look at all the pictures together.

Although the exercise helped improve retention of an experience, it was clear that a better way would be to focus on a few key images that might unlock the memories related to it. The interactive nature of that approach would give patients a greater sense of control over their recollections, and allow them to revisit past experiences rather than simply know they had happened.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/09memory.html?ref=technology

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/shodges/papers/SenseCam%20NeuroPsych%20(camera%20ready).pdf