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Digital lifetime storage
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The digital lifetime storage concept refers to the act of compiling, digitizing and well-ordered storing all the information generated around a person’s life. It creates the "virtual lifetime memory" of a person. It is based on a procedure that affects all fields of daily life, so it could be considered as a particular way of life. Lifetime information The digital lifetime storage includes all the information that daily relates a person to the world:
Procedure Step 1. Digitizing the information The first step is to obtain digitally all the information mentioned above. Due to this information appears in a wide range of formats in real life, each one of them must be suitably processed. *Real files are, generally, texts or images. They can be digitized through a scanner. *Information obtained from communications with other people is more complex to process, as, besides writing (text), there’s also speech (audio) and body language (images or video). :: -For written communication, the physical texts and images can be scanned, whereas electronic documents and e-mails are already digital. :: -For strictly speech communication (through phone or internet), we need to record the audio data by using an audio capture element, which we can currently find on a computer but not on a phone, which requires a third element that stores or sends the data to a computer in real time. This process needs a data digitalization in case we use an analogic phone. :: -For person-to-person or video conference communication we need to record video data too. Video conferences are not a great problem, since the computer can save them in real time, but personal meetings require some recorder to capture the information. Nowadays there are portable cameras which users can hang from their necks or stick on their clothes, carrying them everywhere they go. Hewlett-Packard’s camera-glasses and Microsoft’s SenseCam are good examples of that. *Communication with computers provides information that’s easy to obtain, since it is already digital. *The information from our relation with the environment and people around us is the most complex to obtain, as it is totally unpredictable and includes natural and biological aspects which are impossible to digitize nowadays (smells, flavours, reactions, sensations...). That’s why we don’t consider perceptual aspects here, but it’s possible to save daily routes (locations where we’ve been), including the geographic coordinates and images or videos of the places and people we’ve seen that day. :: -Hewlett-Packard’s camera-glasses experimental prototype is able to record digitally everything around us. It includes a faces, light changes and movement recognition system, and records motion pictures at 1.3 million pixels and 7 frames per second, or 640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second. :: -Microsoft’s SenseCam is a digital portable camera which hangs from the user’s neck and takes pictures automatically at 640x480 pixels. It takes a picture every 30 or 60 seconds more or less, or in case it perceives an important change in movement, light or ambient temperature. Some models integrate an audio recorder and a GPS that associates images with their locations. Step 2. Organizing the information The second step consists in organize all the information in an orderly way to enable the user an easy and intuitive access. We must keep all the information in a single place (usually a hard drive), group the same data files (text, audio, image, video...) and index the documents so the computer can identify them and interrelate them depending on their content. MyLifeBits Microsoft’s software system MyLifeBits is the most important one in this area. This system, created by Jim Gemmell and Roger Lueder and launched in 2001, has functionalities related to the above procedure. It was designed focusing on computer engineer Gordon Bell, who wanted to remove all physical documents from his life and create a virtual memory including everything around him. MyLifeBits stores every interaction with the computer in real time, including the mouse and the typed keys. When user is in motion, it stores his location through a GPS. It records the phone calls and saves the pictures taken by the SenseCam. It can also store all digitized physical documentation. Once the system has all the information (which is daily updated), then classifies and organizes it, and lets us work with it through a powerful search engine. The user, by typing the required keywords, is able to find any document related to them, including pictures, notes, e-mails, people... A virtual memory, including the whole lifetime experience of a person, is created this way. *Gordon Bell has a 150 Gigabytes archive nowadays. *1 Terabyte would be enough to store 83 years of virtual lifetime memory. Positive aspects *To organize essential aspects on a person’s life and interrelate very different and remote concepts. :: -Really efficient to remember past events and elements and organize the future. :: -It can be useful on mental illness treatments, especially the ones which deteriorate the memory (e.g. Alzheimer’s). *Removes most of the physical information (real files), so we can save space and better organize the information, which is stored in our personal computer. :: -Respects the environment. *Frees our memory from needless data, which is stored in our computer and we can check it at any time. Our life may become richer and more creative. Negative aspects *Individual security and privacy may be interfered, as the system stores the information from the whole daily life. *It may automatize the human behavior, as every field of life turns into data acquisition, so it may create dependence and modify daily activities. *It may restrict our own memory, because we may let the machines be our memory and remember for us. *We may also store so much virtual memories, including every single detail from our past life, that it could become against nature, impeding us to forget. See Also
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