The Change Mariner

Microsoft SenseCam

San Jose Mercury News:

It begins with the SenseCam, a device Microsoft researcher Lyndsay Williams calls "a black box recorder for the human body.'' SenseCam was one of dozens of new technologies on display this week at Microsoft's TechFest, an annual event to give employees a look at the company's research around the world.

Hidden inside a piece of jewelry or badge, the SenseCam records hundreds of images a day without the wearer ever pressing a button. The fish-eye lens faces forward, taking pictures of the scene in front of the person wearing it.

Fusing a digital camera with a variety of small sensors, the SenseCam's shutter is triggered by any change in motion, light or temperature. Later, Microsoft might add sensors that detect sound and heart rate.

The SenseCam captured 150 photos in less than an hour, with results that looked a bit like a home movie. It captured her footsteps past gray buildings and bright shops and into the seat of a taxi.

The gadget might have as much appeal to snoops as the absent-minded. It uses a motion sensor like ones found on outdoor lights, snapping pictures of anyone standing nearby.

Williams said no one she encountered in Cambridge asked her about the camera around her neck, even though its red light flashed with every click.
"People are so busy, nobody noticed,'' she said.

Like mobile phone cameras, such technologies are changing what it means to go out in public. Not too far in the future, anonymity may be a thing of the past.
Their James Bond appeal aside, the privacy impact of cameras hidden in jewelry remains an open question. "This is a new technology and there's a question what balance people are comfortable with and what social conventions they will develop around it,'' said Andrew Herbert, managing director of the Cambridge lab.

Sounds like the ultimate tool for bloggers ...

-Tim