An amazing new product using glasses and new technology as an extension of vision:

www.thesun.co.uk/…/ news/article1072017.ece

Wouldn’t it be good if just like a computer we could just upgrade our memory, rather than forgetting key things we could just trash the obsolete and make room for new and more important information. Unfortunately this is not the case the function of memory is completely involuntary. However what we can do is train our brain to remember specific things; images, colours, smells, structures, sounds, tastes, touch, positions, emotions and language.

Memory is just like anything else…. Use it of lose it!

MEMORY is the retention of, and ability to recall, information, personal experiences, and procedures (skills and habits).

http://www.mindtools.com/
Techniques that assist us to remember

‘Mnemonic’ is another word for memory tool.
The idea behind using mnemonics is to encode difficult-to-remember information in a way that is much easier to remember.
The three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics are imagination, association and location.

You can do the following things to make your mnemonics more memorable:
* Use positive, pleasant images. Your brain often blocks out unpleasant ones
* Use vivid, colorful, sense-laden images – these are easier to remember than drab ones
* Use all your senses to code information or dress up an image. Remember that your mnemonic can contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings as well as pictures.
* Give your image three dimensions, movement and space to make it more vivid. You can use movement either to maintain the flow of association, or to help you to remember actions.
* Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image
* Use humor! Funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than normal ones.
* Similarly, rude rhymes are very difficult to forget!
* Symbols (red traffic lights, pointing fingers, road signs, etc.) can code quite complex messages quickly and effectively

http://skepdic.com/memory.html
some general information on memory and forgetting

Forgetting
Is due to either
* Weak encoding (why we forget most things, including our nightly dreams);
* Lack of a retrieval cue (we seem to need something to stimulate memory);
* Time and the replacement in the neural network by later experiences (how many experiences do you remember from many years ago?);
* Repetitive experiences (you’ll remember the one special meal you had at a special restaurant, but you won’t remember what you had for lunch a year ago Tuesday), or
* A drive to keep us sane. (Imagine the brain overload that would occur if we were to never forget anything, the stated goal of L. Ron Hubbard’s dianetics. His followers should read Jorge Luis Borges’s “Funes, the Memorious,” a story about such a being.)

An additional reason for forgetting may have something to do with dreaming:
In the quiet of night your brain may turn the day’s events into dreams. Through dreams your brain may examine those events and make sense of them. It may erase some and add others to your memory bank.*

Accuracy of a memory
How accurate and reliable is memory? Studies on memory have shown that we often construct our memories after the fact, that we are susceptible to suggestions from others that help us fill in the gaps in our memories. That is why, for example, a police officer investigating a crime should not show a picture of a single individual to a victim and ask if the victim recognizes the assailant. If the victim is then presented with a line-up and picks out the individual whose picture the victim had been shown, there is no way of knowing whether the victim is remembering the assailant or the picture.

How does a memory work?
We do not know exactly how memory works, though there are many explanatory models for memory. Some of these models identify memory with brain functions. On this model, for example, memory diminishes with age because neurons die off as we get older. There are only three ways to overcome this fact of nature: 1. figure out a way to stop neurons from dying; 2. stimulate the growth of new neurons; or 3. figure out a way to get the remaining neurons to function more efficiently and pick up the slack. So far, it looks like options 2 and 3 are the most promising.

Another area of possibility…

Along the lines of the Google StreetView…

iPix Camera Technology

With new 360-degree technology, iPIX cameras let you immerse yourself in the images.

Published in the April 2000 issue.

Come on in, take a look around. You can see everything clearly in here. Step forward-look up, down, take a little run to the left. Now turn around and look behind you. Where are you? Navigating through a digital 360 degree bubble video on the Internet, that’s all.

You’ve never seen anything like it, but you will. Discovery Online and the Hawaiian Convention and Visitors Bureau are already experimenting with the system, while others on the sidelines are chomping at the bit. When the technology, called iPIX Movies, gains acceptance, it could revolutionize the world of entertainment.

Code-named V360, the technology includes a two-headed fish-eye camera lens, which resembles a glass ball, to capture full-motion, immersive, 360 degree video. The lens fits on a high-definition camera or standard film camera. Once the images are streamed to your computer through a broadband connection like a cable or phone line, proprietary software removes the distortion created by the lenses and corrects the fish-eye perspective for normal viewing. Then, you can you jump into the picture and explore the environment.

The system was introduced in January, by iPIX, the Internet Picture Corp., based in Oak Ridge, Tenn. It was invented by Steve Zimmermann, now the vice president and “corporate fellow” of iPIX, and formerly an engineer at the Oak Ridge National Labs, where the Manhattan Project was based.

He and his team were working on a project to give robots human vision. Zimmermann and his team brought their findings to NASA down in Huntsville, Ala., which just didn’t believe it could be done. Zimmermann went back to his lab, tried it again and again and finally came up with the current technology, which he patented. As a reminder of the technology’s robotic origins, until 1997 the company was called TeleRobotics, Inc.

Realistic Reality

So, what are iPIX Movies good for? Think about those virtual reality games you play with those special goggles that plunge you into an imaginary, computer-generated world. Now imagine getting drawn into a world that’s not computer-rendered but photographic–it looks perfectly real.

That’s what iPIX Movies are all about. Creating streaming video for new interactive experiences, mainly through the Internet and gaming applications.

The camera itself is tiny, smaller than a cellular phone. Once it shoots the “film,” the content can be recorded or broadcast live. The first public demonstration of V360 was at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where it was unveiled with a demo showing some Hawaiian scenery, taken by a V360 camera attached to a helicopter.

Creative Minds

Ed Lewis, iPIX’s senior VP of corporate development, believes that apart from e-commerce, the most exciting applications for the new technology are in entertainment.

“Think of it,” he says. “This replicates human peripheral viewing. The only limit is the creativity of the individual using it.”

Lewis feels iPIX Movies will be perfect for feature films built specifically for the Internet–meaning that he thinks the technology is so different it will spawn a whole new art form.

Viewers can place themselves right in the picture and see that video in many different ways, from many different angles–as many times as they’d like. And it’s a new video every time you watch it. Movies could be changed forever. You could order DVDs with immersive, interactive content. Imagine stepping into a scene in a Clint Eastwood movie or a 360 degree clip of a behind-the-scenes shot to see what really happens on a movie set. The promise is unlimited.

And movie-making isn’t the only business that could be transformed. Think about real estate. You want to look at a house in Palm Springs, but you can’t get away from the office in New York? Stream an iPIX video from the real estate company and you’ll be able to take a personal, highly detailed tour.

Even better, sports could be shown with a whole new twist. Imagine putting yourself in the middle of a video clip of the Tennessee player who was taken down at the 1-yard line at this year’s Super Bowl. See the view from his eyes–or from the end zone.

You can be sure of one thing. Whether it happens this year or further in the future, full-immersion video is coming your way.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/upgrade/1279326.html

An interesting article I thought…

PHOTOGRAPHY AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY
By Marita Sturken, 1997
Questions by Henry Jenkins, 09/15/2001

Researching into one possible pathway for developing a new technology in relation to vision + memory…

Alzheimer’s: Mementos help preserve memories

Alzheimer’s steals away memories, but tangible mementos can help people remember their past.

Your life is like a tapestry, woven from your memories of people and events. Some threads are dark, while others are bright. Your individual tapestry shines vividly in your mind, reminding you of who you are, where you’ve been and what you’ve done.

Alzheimer’s disease gradually robs people of the memories that make up their tapestries. You can help mend these holes by creating a tangible repository of memories — in a scrapbook, videotape or audiotape.

“Caregivers become the memory for their loved one with Alzheimer’s disease,” says Glenn Smith, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. “By gathering memories, you can bring important events and experiences from your loved one’s past into the present. You’re the link to his or her life history.”

Store memories externally

Memories can be preserved in many ways. You can:

• Write them in a journal
• Create a scrapbook with photos, newspaper clippings, letters and postcards, greeting cards, sketches, poetry and musical verses
• Store mementos in a special box or chest
• Create a video or audio recording of personal stories

Interview your loved one

You may want to start by interviewing your relative or friend about his or her family history, nationality, heritage, traditions and celebrations. Ask about favorite sports, books, music and hobbies. You may want to ask about cultural and historical events. Go all the way back to childhood. Childhood games, homes and pets are good starting topics. As Alzheimer’s progresses, your loved one will be less able to remember more recent events.

This is a great opportunity to reminisce, an activity that most people with Alzheimer’s enjoy tremendously. Depending on the status of your relative’s or friend’s memory, you may also want to interview neighbors, co-workers, old friends and other family members and record their memories of your loved one.

Documents also help

Other sources of information can include old documents, important papers or personal correspondence. You may want to make copies of precious photos and documents so that they won’t get lost or ruined. These types of scrapbooks typically get a lot of use.

“By creating a life story, you affirm for your loved one all the positive things he or she has done in life and can still do,” says Dr. Smith. “Even after your relative’s memories start to fade, creating a life story shows that you value and respect his or her legacy. It also reminds you who your loved one was before Alzheimer’s disease.”

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alzheimers/AZ00020

A nice discussion on photography and new technology…

Photography, Pixels and New Technology: Is There a “Paradigm Shift?”

The computer age is redefining photography, and yet notions of photography can still be colored by the 19th-century view that photography is a slice of time and hence, of reality. One inventor of photography called it “nature’s pencil,” and courts have seemed to agree by traditionally allowing photography as evidence in trials. The core of the news photographer’s paradigm is that photography has a moral authority that eludes words. But the pixel (computer data transformations of a photograph) is replacing film with silicon chips, and darkrooms with computers. New technology will test the notions of photography as a slice of reality, a legal document, and as traditional photojournalism. There is a larger societal impact of this new technology, and the traditional ethical discussions regarding words and reporting do not fully encompass digitized computer photographs. Photojournalists, and perhaps society, are facing a “paradigm shift.” (Thirty-eight notes are attached.) (RS)

http://eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED310388&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED310388