The aim of this research project is to build technology to
help people remember. The problem of forgetting should be familiar to most
anyone and it is likely that the reader will not remember much about this paper
in a week. Memory aids have existed for as long as one can remember. Strings
tied on fingers, Post-it Notes�, and Palm Pilots� are all examples of tools
people use to help remember. However, all of these require active effort in
order for the memory to be triggered and none take advantage of the plethora of
potential memory triggers available to the would-be rememberer. Computers can
help.
Computers have reached the point in which continuous,
verbatim recording of an individual�s life experiences is technologically
feasible. The challenge now is turning vast repositories of such recordings
into a useful resource while respecting the social, legal, and ethical
ramifications of ubiquitous recording. We have built a �memory prosthesis� that
can be used to amass such data for the purpose of helping people with common,
everyday memory problems.
