Friday, 9 am, home听听听听听听听听
鈥淲hat鈥檚 that?鈥� my boyfriend asks me, suspiciously peering at the camera I鈥檝e just strapped around my neck. 鈥淚s it filming me? Can it hear what I鈥檓 saying?鈥�
ALEX is staring at my SenseCam 鈥� a wearable camera that will be keeping track of my life, all day, every day, for one week. Packed with sensors, the camera is on constant alert for any change in my surroundings. When it spots something new 鈥� snap! 鈥� it takes a picture. At the end of each day, I have around 4000 new images of my life.
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The pictures will feed my 鈥渓ifelog鈥� 鈥� a virtual diary that records every aspect of your life in excruciating detail. Lifelogging has already proven to be useful for people with memory problems, but many healthy devotees are now donning portable cameras so that no part of their life will be lost to posterity.
It may sound like the ultimate vanity project, but they might be on to something. Our memories are notoriously fallible 鈥� not only are we highly selective in what we remember, but our brains will often embellish our past with imaginary details. Devices such as the SenseCam provide the perfect opportunity to view our past with cold objectivity. According to the latest research, this could help us to live happier, more fulfilling lives. It might even help you lose weight. Keen to see what a re-run of my life would look like, I decided to spend a week with the little black box.
Lifelogging first emerged soon after the birth of home computing, when a few enthusiasts began to experiment with the new wireless webcams to constantly capture the sights and sounds of their home. Various start-ups soon created their own, dedicated wearable cameras, and by 2003 Microsoft had dipped its toe in the water with the SenseCam, one of the most popular lifelogging device at the moment.
Now manufactured by UK software company as the Vicon Revue, it includes, among other things, a digital camera with a fish-eye lens, an accelerometer motion sensor and a light sensor, both of which trigger the device to take a picture. If I turn to talk to my colleague, for example, the sensors will detect movement and light changes and I get a lovely snap of his face. That amounts to around three snaps every minute, which I can review at any time by uploading the images to a computer.
Neuropsychologists were the first to seize on the device鈥檚 potential to help people with amnesia and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. As expected, it turned out to be a great way of retrieving forgotten memories. Take Mrs W, for example, a retired social worker diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, who found it difficult to remember events in her recent past. Georgina Browne, a neuropsychologist at Addenbrooke鈥檚 Hospital in Cambridge, UK, and colleagues asked Mrs W to wear the device throughout the day, before reviewing the images the following day and at points over the next two weeks. 鈥淚t was apparent that there would be a few images that really stood out for Mrs W,鈥� says Browne. 鈥淎ll of a sudden she鈥檇 have a kind of boost and would be able to reach back into the memory, as it were.鈥� Six months later, Mrs W was still able to recall around 40 per cent of a day鈥檚 events that she had previously reviewed with SenseCam images, compared with 20 per cent of those reviewed with the help of a written diary ().
Our understanding of human memory can help to explain why the lifelog is so effective for people with memory difficulties, whose cognitive decline likely originates from disruptions to the hippocampal network. In a healthy brain, this network stores and then 鈥渞eplays鈥� memories soon after the event, either consciously, or during sleep. If we rehearse our memories often enough, they are gradually sent to the neocortex, which has more room for storage. Otherwise, they may be lost forever.
When the hippocampal network is damaged, memories aren鈥檛 rehearsed as readily, but viewing SenseCam images seems to help the brain consolidate a memory. 鈥淪enseCam images are stronger triggers than written description,鈥� says Browne. 鈥淛ust like a photo of someone standing on a table at your wedding is more likely to trigger a memory than someone describing what happened.鈥� , at the University of Exeter, UK, agrees: 鈥淭he SenseCam seems to be working as a kind of prosthesis, providing what the [hippocampal network] normally provides in a healthy brain.鈥�
Sunday, 5 pm, The Ritz, London
鈥淲elcome to the Ritz. May I take your coat?鈥� I enter London鈥檚 most famous hotel for a Christmas treat. Proud to have my SenseCam see this, I look down, used to its occasional flickering light that tells me it鈥檚 searching for something new, but the battery is empty. Sadly I remove the camera and sit down for tea. Somehow I feel that it is missing out on the cucumber sandwiches and cake.
Zeman has found the SenseCam to be particularly useful when investigating a rarer form of amnesia, caused by a type of epilepsy. 鈥淲e know that it gives rise to a kind of leakiness of memories,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese people take memories on board and then lose them rapidly, but we didn鈥檛 know how quickly. We thought it might be over a period of weeks.鈥�
Previously, researchers like Zeman had to ask people with amnesia to remember a word list, before testing them at different intervals to see how quickly they forget. The problem is, every time you test someone, you are reminding them of the words again, so the results get messy. Zeman turned to the SenseCam instead. 鈥淚t allowed us to build up a photographic diary that generates a lot of images,鈥� he said. This offered an immense library of photos, with which he could then test their memory at regular intervals. Importantly, there were easily enough photos for him to choose a different group each time, meaning the subject couldn鈥檛 become familiar with the images during testing.
He found that his patients鈥� memories were leaking away much more quickly that he had anticipated 鈥� within 24 hours or so (Current Opinion in Neurology, vol 23, p 610). Given this time frame, Zeman suspects that small 鈥渂lips鈥� of unusual brain activity, which happen during sleep, might prevent memory consolidation through the night. 鈥淚f we can identify when the problem is occurring it becomes possible to treat it,鈥� he says.
The device may even help people with amnesia to cope with the emotional disturbances associated with their disorder, such as anxiety and depression. For instance, one person who had received a brain injury, whom we shall call Allan, found it hard to face leaving his house afterwards. His poor memory compounded the problem, making it difficult to assess exactly what situations scared him. So Fergus Gracey at the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation in Cambridge, UK, wondered whether reviewing SenseCam images of Allan鈥檚 day might trigger the same emotional responses as had occurred in the first place. They did. 鈥淲hen you review SenseCam images you not only recapture memories but recapture the feelings that occurred at the time,鈥� Allan says. Together, the pair created a detailed autobiographical memory of Allan鈥檚 anxiety triggers, which helped him learn to recast the situations as non-threatening (Behaviour Research and Therapy, in press). The interventions have had a significant impact on Allan鈥檚 ability to participate in social situations, and through the therapy he has become less anxious and depressed and his self-esteem has improved.
Monday, 10 pm, home听听听听听听听听
I鈥檓 watching my day flash past my eyes. Wow, I slouch a lot. I hardly crack a smile while staring at my computer. The only real daylight I鈥檝e seen is during the 10 minute walk from my flat to the tube and the 5 minute walk from tube to work. It鈥檚 a little depressing.
It hasn鈥檛 taken long for researchers 鈥� and a bunch of early adopters 鈥� to wonder whether lifelogging might hold similar benefits for people with healthy, fully functioning brains. Who, after all, wouldn鈥檛 like a quick memory boost every so often? Although the results aren鈥檛 as dramatic as for people with amnesia, reviewing a lifelog does seem to improve recall months later (). For some, the changes are sometimes striking. Chris Moulin, a neuroscientist at the University of Leeds, UK, who tested out a wearable camera has described his reaction to images taken six months earlier as a kind of 鈥渕ental time travel鈥�, as if he were being transported back to the time the pictures were taken. Others describe 鈥淧roustian moments鈥� as they experience the flood of sensations 鈥� smells, music 鈥� that accompany images that they review.
Besides triggering recall, a lifelog can also help you to view those events from a different, more constructive perspective, allowing you to notice things you might have missed first time round. Why would this be useful? There is now a wealth of literature which shows that re-evaluating your life through a journal, say, can do wonders for your mental well-being (New 杏吧原创, 28 September 2010, p 44). Seeing a run of images from your day might help the process. For instance, Fionnuala Murphy at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, UK, and Emily Holmes at the University of Oxford found that volunteers鈥� perceived enjoyment of a day鈥檚 tasks, and their overall mood, could be influenced by pairing a SenseCam鈥檚 recordings with subtly positive or negative captions (). Their team suspect lifelogging could be incorporated into cognitive behavioural therapy to help people with depression and anxiety learn how to break out of vicious cycles of negative thinking.
Reviewing your lifelog can also highlight those small, over-looked habits that have a big impact on your life. When , principal researcher at Microsoft, recently gave a SenseCam to the members of four households, the volunteers were mostly concerned with small details 鈥� such as the time they were spending at the kitchen sink. One couple were disturbed to see how much time they spent in the car rather than playing with their kids, leading them to move house to be closer to their children鈥檚 schools (International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, vol 69, p 311). After seeing my own lifelog, I鈥檓 tempted to make more effort to cycle to work and go outside for lunch.
Such cues may be particularly helpful for tricky life-style changes involving dieting and fitness. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not unusual to forget what you eat, even when you鈥檙e keeping a food diary,鈥� says from the British Heart Foundation鈥檚 health promotion group at the University of Oxford. 鈥淥ur best guess is that written food diaries are about 50 per cent accurate.鈥� He found some evidence for the mind鈥檚 ability to deceive itself when he asked volunteers to wear a SenseCam for a week. In total, volunteers typically believed they had spent 50 minutes longer on their feet than they actually had, which is a third of their recommended exercise for the week. 鈥淭he SenseCam can be of great benefit on an individual level, but in the bigger view, we鈥檙e helping the scientific community become more accurate. It gives us a much better chance of knowing what works, what doesn鈥檛 and why,鈥� says Kelly.
Trawling through your lifelog to calculate exactly how much you are eating or walking might sound tedious, which is why , now at the University of Oxford, is working on a 鈥渃oncept detector鈥� 鈥� a computer program that can infer activities from an image. Since each image is time-stamped, it can then work out how long you spend walking to work, for example.
Wednesday, 8 pm, The Corrib Rest听听听听听听听听聽聽聽
Me and my SenseCam are happily watching a rugby game on TV in my local pub. But suspicious glances have arisen from fellow patrons who look warily at the camera. I wonder whether I should really be filming in here. Has the SenseCam turned me into a felon?
Despite these apparent benefits, my experience with the device has made me wonder whether it might also raise privacy issues for long-term users. I鈥檝e been uneasy about taking pictures of those around me. What if they don鈥檛 want to be photographed? 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 own your own image,鈥� says Kelly, who is looking into the ethics of the SenseCam. 鈥淵ou only legally have privacy rights when you have a reasonable expectation to that privacy, say, in your home.鈥�
So I鈥檓 OK using it in the pub and theoretically on public transport too. But UK anti-terrorism rules prohibit the use of any recording device on the tube, so I probably shouldn鈥檛 have been taking pictures on my way to work this week. Likewise, the cinema that I went to yesterday is also protected by law against anyone using a recording device so my grainy images of Harry Potter should be destroyed too.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a new technology and a new situation,鈥� says Kelly. He says that it鈥檚 your right to ask someone not to take your picture, but nobody has the right not to have their photo taken in a public place. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want the general public to feel uncomfortable so there are areas that you might want to hide it.鈥� I think back to the strange looks I got when walking into a public toilet forgetting I was still wearing the camera.
Perhaps it is a little intrusive. Gordon Bell, a prolific 鈥渓ifelogger鈥� and computer engineer, reckons we are likely to adopt more subtle devices in future 鈥� like the watch he uses to monitor his heart rate during the day. That gives you a simple way to keep track of your health without dwelling on every aspect of your past. Forgetting is, after all, a survival mechanism that has worked successfully for millennia to prevent us from becoming bogged down in our failures. With lifelogging, they would always be available. Even though you can choose not to view your diary, it might be difficult to resist taking a second view of a painful break-up, or a nasty accident.
But whether you like the idea or not, lifelogging of some sort might be coming to almost everyone. Just look at the amount of information you can already access on your Facebook timeline. That鈥檚 not to mention the capabilities of the latest smartphones. Bell reckons that, eventually, our cellphones will begin to track and analyse many different aspects of our lives so we can objectively see where we鈥檙e going 鈥� right, or wrong. 鈥淲e all have a device capable of huge amounts of storage so it鈥檚 only a matter of time,鈥� he says. If he鈥檚 right, escaping your past may be very difficult indeed.
Friday, 9.15 pm, home听听听听听听听听
鈥淒o you want another piece of cake?鈥� asks Alex. I eye the wedge of chocolate cake and then my camera. I take it from around my neck and place it face down on the table. It鈥檚 been fun, I think, but sometimes it鈥檚 good to forget.
