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Comments: 119 +- Hardware: MS's "Lifeblogging" Camera Enters Mass Production on Saturday October 17, @02:35PM
Posted
by
kdawson
on Saturday October 17, @02:35PM
from the first-you-need-a-life dept.
from the first-you-need-a-life dept.
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holy_calamity writes "Remember Microsoft's camera to be slung around the necks of people with Alzheimer's to help them recall where they'd been? A version of this device will now be mass-produced by a UK firm, Vicon, which obtained a license from Microsoft to manufacture the camera. It is worn around the neck and takes an image every thirty seconds, or in response to its light sensor, accelerometer, or body-heat sensor indicating that something of interest may be happening. Until now only a few hundred had been made for research, which showed they can genuinely help people with memory problems. The new version will be marketed to Alzheimer's researchers this winter, and to consumers for 'lifelogging' beginning in 2010."
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The big problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Getting people with memory problems to remember they have them and how to use them.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It could be of use for family or health care providers to see what the person actually does all day, but again, somehow that seems like an awfully small niche item.
I suspect this w
Re:The big problem (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:The big problem (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The big problem (Score:4, Insightful)
I apologize for that jackass' response above (even though this is /., so it is to be expected). You are being sincere and sharing useful info, and he is just a troll. Anyway, understand that there are good times to come, and if you try to make the best of what time she has left, it will mean loads to your daughter in her future. I suspect you already know this, but remeber that your daughter is still watching how you treat this situation and it molds her as well. Just know that you have positive energy coming your way from me. Alzheimer's sucks.
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Re:The big problem (Score:4, Insightful)
I watched a loved one slowly fade away via Alzheimer's. I feel for you, friend, and wish you some peace.
Take care of yourself and daughter, and don't be afraid to ask people for help. You'd be surprised what resources are available and how many people will step up and help out. And the help is for you more than for your wife. You still have lots of life to live, and a daughter to live it for.
I often wondered (and hoped) if my loved one was increasingly immersed in some gauzy state of inattention, not so aware (or concerned) about the distress her condition was causing the rest of us.
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Re:The big problem (Score:4, Insightful)
"I have a feeling that my life has come to an end. Next month I am going to be 48, but it often feels like I am 20 years older."
My parents both had Alzheimers.
At some point, you should consider institutionalizing your wife. Both my wife and myself are Air Force vets, capable people, and that didn't mean shit because Alz patients are exhausting to care for even when they are mostly docile.
She will require care 24 hours a day, and there is no way one or even two people (my wife and I cared for my dying father) can do that. We were able, after he could not live alone, place him in a very good nursing home. We later moved him to a small house on our property, and were able to get in-home caregivers and later, hospice caregivers so my father could die with us. That was in the last year or so of his life. My mother preferred a nursing home near her older extended family.
Alzheimers is brutal (if I'm diagnosed with it, I will organize my affairs and prepare to suicide. May anyone who has moral/religious problems with this come down with Alzheimers!), there is nothing to be done about it, there is no hope, and that must be faced and dealt with straight off.
Look into assisted home care options with a view to moving her into permanent custodial care. Take your time looking at caregivers (good nursing homes literally "smell right" and the staff are genuinely concerned) and learn about your options.
Above all, find social outlets and deliberately prepare yourself for another life. You are middle-aged, you can't accomplish anything at all (this is the hardest part) by staying with your doomed partner, and you have a right to live. Take care, and make a future for yourself.
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Re:The big problem (Score:4, Insightful)
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Why do they need a "license"? (Score:4, Insightful)
The technology involved is bloody well obvious.
Re:Why do they need a "license"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe the company in question is licensing a pre-made design and schematics?
I think it's worth many lulz that you automatically assumed it was a patent license and thus a crime against humanity.
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Re: (Score:2)
I don't recall using the word patent.
The devil is in the details (Score:2)
Obviously Vicon are not idiots and they saw a benefit in licensing the tech rather than building everything from ground up.
*Possible patents
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
It may have been cheaper to license an existing Micro$oft design than it would have been to get their own drivers certified for Vista/Windoze 7.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not only is it obvious, it has already existed for years: you can hang any camera with an interval function around your neck. People have done this to document their day, although it gets boring pretty fast (and has serious privacy implications).
Furthermore, there are more and more tiny video cameras you can attach to your helmet and clothes and that last for many hours.
Re:Why do they need a "license"? (Score:4, Insightful)
The technology involved is bloody well obvious.
"Cognitive Prosthetics" is bleeding-edge.
The tech has to be proven in clinical trials. Digital technology eyed in fight against Alzheimer's [theglobeandmail.com]
Clinical trials cost money.
On November 27, Microsoft announced that it was giving $550 000 in funding to six teams of academic researchers in the United Kingdom and North America. One of the researchers, Fergus Gracey, a clinical psychologist from the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, in Ely, U.K., is planning to use SenseCam to help the rehabilitation of patients with acquired brain injury. "Many of our clients have a shorter fuse or find it difficult to manage emotional arousal," says Gracey. "We hope to use the reviewing of SenseCam images of the trigger situation, along with heart-rate recordings of the individual during that situation, to help prompt recall and to help the person tune in physiologically to what was going on." A Camera to Help Dementia Patients [technologyreview.com]
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lifeblogging in the bedroom (Score:2)
i can only imagine
Re:lifeblogging in the bedroom (Score:5, Funny)
You don't need to imagine, Paris Hilton has been lifeblogging from the bedroom for years.
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lifeblog.com (Score:2)
The next thing in "social networking": link your "SenseCam" to your 'pod and upload an image to lifeblog.com (already registered) every time you move your head. It will surely soon eclipse FaceSpace.
Predictable Outcome (Score:5, Funny)
08:12 - "Hmmm, I trolled slashdot. Oh well." ...
09:23 - "Hmmm, I trolled slashdot. Oh well."
11:05 - "Hmmm, I trolled slashdot. Oh well."
13:11 - "Hmmm, I trolled slashdot. Oh well."
15:43 - "Hmmm, I trolled slashdot. Oh well."
A better and more mundane solution (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology can and does change our lives in profound and wonderful ways, but...
I think a pad of paper and a pen might be a better solution, or even a PDA (remember when they were called PDAs?) with a calendar and note taking application.
8:10 AM - Took heart medication.
9:45 AM - Went to market to pick up bread for dinner.
10:30 AM - Took blood pressure medication.
10:40 AM - Maintenance stopped by and fixed the leaky faucet in the bathroom. If it starts leaking again, call 555-1212 and ask for Ben and let him know it's still leaking.
People with memory problems need a convenient and reliable memory enhancer. I doubt recording your life and having to watch it back over and over to see what you've done is convenient or reliable. Glancing at your pad of paper or calendar plus note taking application is easy, fast, convenient, and reliable.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
if you can remember how to use it.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do something manually when you can do it automatically?
I agree that the approach isn't useful for something like pill schedules. I think the intent is for general events. Something more along the lines of "Went to the park with grandchildren in the afternoon", "Saw old friend today", "Celebrated 87th birthday at favourite restaurant", and "Witnessed beautiful sunset last night".
Re:A better and more mundane solution (Score:5, Informative)
My grandmother has severe memory problems. We have tried a system very similar to what you describe and frankly, once her memory got bad enough to need such a system, she couldn't remember to note the things she should remember. We did most of the note taking for her and she would forget to use them. Honestly, the camera may help with memory problems just due to the fact that it does it automatically but really it may just come down to her forgetting why she has it and leave it somewhere. What people with memory problems like hers really need is care and attention from their family and friends. It is as simple as that. They're going through life with pieces missing and they often know it and that is really hard for them emotionally and no camera is going to fix that.
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Re: (Score:2)
Actually what they need is a drug that inhibits the formation of the plaques and Tau tangles that kill their entire brain a piece at a time. (the entire brain is dying in alzheimer's, but the memory systems are obviously the most fragile and the first to fail completely)
Re: (Score:2)
What do you do about all the people for which the damage is already done? preventing the disorder is of course the thing to do if you can but remember that once the damage is done, it is very difficult to repair.
Re:A better and more mundane solution (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't read the papers first-hand but did see the research presented and IIRC the point is that this doesn't just help the person to remember the facts of what they did (as your suggested approach would). Instead, it allowed them to retain the *actual memories* of what had happened. Having visual and audio records of the events of the day, and reviewing them periodically over the next couple of weeks actually helped these people retain their memories of the events. I'm pretty sure they said this extended to details not captured by the SenseCam, demonstrating that they weren't just remembering the material they'd reviewed.
So quite different from 'Did I remember to take my pill? Oh yes, here, I wrote it down...'
When I first heard about the SenseCam project it was the lifeblogging pitch and I thought it was cool but gimmicky. The research results they had for improving patients' memories really impressed me though.
Parent
Re:A better and more mundane solution (Score:5, Funny)
7:45 AM - Woke up
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Re: (Score:2)
But what if you forget where you put your notebook?
No, that's a stupid idea.
A better solution would be to tattoo little notes to yourself all over your body.
That way you can't lose them.
Writing is a big problem! (Score:4, Informative)
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Reading a clock is a big problem (Score:5, Informative)
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If I wore this, it would be sad (Score:4, Funny)
Re:If I wore this, it would be sad (Score:4, Funny)
But it would make a nice porn gallery! (Pray that there are no reflections on the screen! ^^)
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What my semi-random shots would look like (Score:2)
1) Using Draino in my stopped up kitchen sink
2) Me standing naked in front of the mirror, contemplating my 250 lbs weight
3) Using a plunger on an overflowing stopped up toilet
4) Checking the tire pressure in my tires
5) Posting on Slashdot
6) Standing in line at the grocery store in a slow moving line
7) Bending down looking for mosquito larvae in a puddle
8) Staring at the mess in my closet and wondering when I will ever get around to cleaning it out
9) Me
Re: (Score:2)
6) Standing in line at the grocery store in a slow moving line
7) Bending down looking for mosquito larvae in a puddle
The line was so long you decided to just eat mosquitos? WTF, man.
Re: (Score:2)
After finding mosquito larvae, I might be tempted to grab a couple of granules of VectoBac which contains a mosquito specific, mosquito larvae killing bacillus. However, I probably would not actually do that on someone else's property. On our own property, I have noticed that the bacillus kills mosquito larva,
...and what's this thing doing around my neck? (Score:3, Funny)
That's the next question outta my mouth after trying to figure out why the #!*@$ I walked into the kitchen in the first place.
A better use (Score:5, Funny)
Not Life"B"logging (Score:4, Informative)
Get the B out of there, in the headline. It's not life"B"logging!!!! You made up that word.
The article refers to lifelog, not lifeblog.
Let's not let another crappy made-up word enter our vocabulection!
Too late. (Score:2)
The domain is already registered.
Where did I put my keys? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure there are tons of other movement/light/sound stimuli combinations that would also be useful to program in as markers for important events. The sound of a car engine starting, a door closing or opening - if this could be opened up to community development, the possibilities are staggering.
I smell a government deal for MS! (Score:2)
Wait for them to become mandatory! ^^
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Portable DVR's have been around for decades. I have a camera+video recorder that fits in my pocket and can run for 6 hours on battery and record 3 months worth of video and audio on a 16Gig SDHC card.
Why not just use what already exists and can be bought cheaply. Mine was $180.00 + the lipstick camera on a clip for $69.00 works awesome for my sports stuff and when it does not see movement it stops recording. works great to catch the ass that is stealing beer.
lame (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
> Not only will you look like a twat...
Only until Apple comes out with their immensely cool version.
Re: (Score:2)
The Apple iTwat?
Little Brother for everyone! (Score:3, Interesting)
Imagine if this catches on and everyone starts wearing one and uploading their "lives" online. If people freaked about Google Streetview invading their "privacy" that will be nothing compared to what will happen when this tsunami hits. If each photo or video stream is encoded with the date, time and GPS coordinates and you combine it with some good facial recognition software we can finally bring back the ancestral "village" where everyone knows what everyone else is doing, all the time, everywhere. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and these little devices can help shine it everywhere.
licensed??? (Score:2)
What's there to license? Standard digital cameras can be worn around your neck and have an interval function. There is absolutely nothing new here.
Granndpa's video blog (Score:4, Funny)
07:45:30 Face down in oatmeal.
07:46:00 Face down in oatmeal.
07:46:30 Face down in oatmeal.
07:47:00 Face down in oatmeal.
07:47:30 Nurse wiping oatmeal off face.
07:48:00 Face down in oatmeal.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Where did lifeblogging come from?
TFA only refers to lifelogging.
kdawson sucks.