Humans seem to have an innate urge to chronicle their lives and experiences.  From handwritten journals (think Samuel Pepys and the Fire of London) to blogging, Twitter and lifestreaming, its clear that writing about and recording life is an important aspect of our self realisation.  Technology has dramatically improved and enhanced our ability to capture and relate events and developments.

At some point the human brain will be integrated with technology.  Lets imagine that the technology is a camera and a hard-drive. We’ll effectively have a video recorder built into our heads with our eyes acting as the camera lense.  You’d have the ability to turn the camera on and off by the simple act of thinking.

Maybe some parents would have remote access to their children’s vision so that they could see exactly what they were up to at anytime.  Painful memories and unpleasant experiences could be deleted or archived.

The prospect of human-computer integration is scary but the opportunity to recall and playback experiences on demand would be fun.  I’d love to rewind to my last year of secondary school so that I could re-experience the goal that I scored for the first eleven. A solitary goal during my school career but a cracker (top left corner from the opposite corner of the 18-yard box with defenders galore in pursuit).

This TechCrunch story by Michael Arrington refers to some of the development in this area, including a ten year Microsoft research project called SenseCam.  At the moment, the technology is external and it also has a fair way to go in terms of downsizing.  SenseCam takes images passively but one wonders what the quality or usefulness of these pictures will be  if the thing is basically dangling from the wearer.

I wouldn’t swap my computer free brain for the opportunity to capture my future – not really – and I am struggling to see the value of a semi attached camera.  Most photos aren’t much cop without the ‘point’ part of the process and surely this guy is just going to get in trouble…

Would this appeal to you?

Tags: camera, Microsoft, recorders, sensecam, snaps